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Roman surname (Schulze 78; ThlL, Onom. 2,765-770). The fictive early republican relatives of Curtius[I 1-3] are said to be the explanation for the name Lacus Curtius [1. 75ff.]. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] C., M. Hero of Roman legend Hero of Roman legend. When a crevice opened on the forum in 362 BC and an oracle announced that it would not close up until Rome's greatest possessions were sacrificed to guarantee the eternity of Rome, Curtius interpreted this as a sign of military bravery and jumped in full armour with h…

[I] (Ἄξιος; Áxios). Largest river in  Macedonia, today Vardar; rises in Sar Planina and flows into the Aegean to the west of Thessalonica. Barely navigable owing to its gorges, the A. valley does, however, form the main overland route between the Aegean and the region around the Danube, a route which has been in use from the time of antiquity and is still used today. The A. flowed through the settlement territories of the Dardani, the Paeones and the Macedones (Amphaxitis). [II] Plebeian gentile name, mentioned in records since the 3rd cent. BC and possibly connected with th…

[German version] [1] Roman cognomen Roman cognomen ('calf bone'), recorded for L. Cornelius [I 56] Lentulus S. etc. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) Bibliography Degrassi, FCIR, 269  Kajanto, Cognomina, 63; 226. [German version] [2] Aemilius S. Author of a work of history In a gloss on Vell. Pat. 1,6,6, an excerpt from a work by a certain Aemilius S. with the title De annis populi Romani is cited as a supplement to Velleius' presentation of the genealogical derivation of the Macedonian royal house. The excerpt contains an account of the successive five empires…

Roman family name of Etruscan origin ( Ceicna, Schulze, 75, 285, 567; ThlL, Onom. 15f.), whose bearers belonged to the city aristocracy of Volaterrae (cf. Cic. Fam. 6,6,9), where the family is attested in several branches and partly through richly adorned graves. (CIE 18-24; 36-42 et al.). The lineage appeared in Rome from the 1st cent. BC, but never lost its links with its homeland (cognomen Tuscus in C. [II 9]); villa of the Roman city prefect of AD 414, Caecina Decius Atinatius Albinus, (PLRE 1, 50)…

Gentilicium of a plebeian gens, verifiable from the 3rd cent. BC. The most important branches are the Aviolae (imperial era), Balbi and especially the Glabriones, who are documented from the 3rd cent. BC to the end of the 5th cent. AD [1]. In Rome there was a compitum Acilium, on which the first Greek doctor in Rome was settled in 219 (Plin. HN 29,12 [2. 98]), on the Pincio the horti Aciliorum, in the imperial era the most famous gardens of Rome [2. 195 f.; 3. 488 ff.]. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican era [German version] [I 1] Soldier in Caesar's tenth legion Brave soldier in Ca…

Common Roman cognomen, originally designating the second-born child. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] Saturninius S. Salutius Praef. praet. Orientis 361-365 and 365-366 ( iterum), from a non-senatorial family in Gallia, a non-Christian. Between 324 and 350, he held several offices at court as well as governorships in the western part of the empire. In 355-359, he held the quaestura sacri palatii at the court of Caesar Iulianus [11] (CIL VI 1764 = ILS 1255) in Gallia who came to trust S. and, upon his rise to Augustus after the death of Co…

Oscan praenomen and Oscan/Lat. gentilic. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] Pontius, Gavius Samnite general, delivered Rome its defeat 321 BC at Caudium Samnite general who in 321 BC famously defeated the Romans at Caudium and sent them 'under the yoke' (Liv. 9,2,6-6,4). The fact that the Samnite leader in the Social War (Social Wars [3]), P. [I 4], had the same name is no proof that P.' name entered the tradition only later. The annalistic tradition (in Liv. 9, 15,8), however, of P.'…

Originally an Oscan nomen gentile. The family belonged to the urban nobility of Benventum; the sources show it gaining kinship with one of the leading Roman noble families through the marriage, probably c. 300 BC, of one of its daughters, Otacilia, to a relative of the gens Fabia (Fabius) (Liber de praenominibus 6; Fest. 174 L). This no doubt contributed to the rapid rise of family members O. [I 2] and O. [I 3] to the consulship. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] O. Crassus Prefect of Pompeius at Lissus, 48 BC Prefect of Cn. Pompeius at Lissus in 4…

(also Poblicius, Poplicius, Populicius). Name of a Roman plebeian family, known from the 3rd cent. BC onwards, but not politically significant. During the Late Republic the name was often assumed by public slaves ( servi publici) after manumission as a token of their former status. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] P., Q. Praetor between 69 and 66 BC; after that, presumably governor in Asia Praetor between 69 and 66 BC; after that, presumably governor of the province of Asia (Cic. Clu. 126; Cic. Ad Q. Fr. 1,2,14?; MRR 2,143; 150). Bartels, Jens (Bon…

Roman cognomen, probably originally referring to an origin ‘in the mountains’; in the Republican period it was found in the family of the Tarpeii, in the Imperial period also among the Iulii and Venuleii. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] One of the proceres of Domitian One of the proceres (‘leading men’), whom Domitianus [1], according to Juvenal (4,107; 131f.), gathered at his farm in the Alban Hills. He was certainly a senator; as a number of senators of this period bore the cognomen M., identification is uncertain, but he is most likely to have been T. Iunius M., cos. suff…

[German version] A. (Roman) Name of a Roman plebeian family, of which the branch of the Planci acquired political significance in the 1st century BC. Its most prominent member is M. [I 4], cos. in 42 BC. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] M. Flaccus, L. Took part in an attempt on the life of Cassius Longinus in 48 BC From Hispania Baetica; he escaped after a failed attempt on the life of the Q. Cassius [I 16] Longinus, a follower of Caesar's, in Corduba in 48 BC (Bell. Alex. 52,3f.). In 46/5 as a follower of the younger…

[No German version] I. Greek Degani, Enzo (Bologna) Bibliography GA 2,1,11 f.; 2,2,13-16. [German version] [I 1] Epigrammatic poet of Nicaea. Author of three interesting epigrams from the ‘Garland’ of Philippus: the astounding lament of a ship that -- having escaped shipwreck -- returns to port ‘with a cargo of corpses’ (Anth. Pal. 9,218), and two descriptions of works of art, the first (Anth. Pal. 7,623) a famous painting by Aristides of Thebes (Plin. HN 35,98), the second (Anth. Pal. 9,756) seems to illustrate …

Roman family name, maybe originally Samnitic (cf. Schulze, 187f.), epigraphically also attested from central Italy. Name bearers in Rome are known from the 2nd cent. BC onwards. Egnat(i)us is uniquely also transmitted as a praenomen (Val. Max. 6,3,9. Plin. HN 14,89; [1]). I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] E., Gellius Leader of the Samnites in the 3rd Samnite War from 296 BC on Leader of the Samnites in the 3rd Samnite War, who brought about a coalition between the Samnites, Etruscans, Umbrians and Celts against Rome in 296. Their united army was de…

Probably originally the vulgar Latin form of the Roman proper name Plautius, an independent nomen gentile at the latest from the 1st cent. BC onwards. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] P. Gallus, L. Lat. rhetoric teacher, 1st cent. BC The first teacher of Latin rhetoric attested for Rome at the beginning of the 1st cent. BC who held his classes in Latin and on Roman matters and was very popular (cf. Cic. in Suet. Gram. 26). An edict of the censors of 92 BC, especially Cicero's teacher Licinius [I 10]…

(Ὀρέστης; Oréstēs). [German version] [1] Son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra Son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, who took brutal revenge on his mother and her lover Aegisthus for the murder of his father. The story, which is told in the Nostoi (EpGF p. 67,25-27; PEG I p. 95), was already familiar to the author of the Odyssey (Hom. Od. 1,29ff., 298ff.; 3,193ff., 248ff., 303ff.; 4,90-92, 512ff.; 11,387ff.; 24,20ff., 93ff., 192ff.); depending on the context, the story serves as a foil, either negatively for Penelope, the faithful wife (vs. Clytaemnestra…

Roman proper name, possibly derived from the first name Helvus. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] H., C. Praetor in 198 BC in Gallia Cisalpina In 199 BC plebeian aedile, in 198 praetor in Gallia Cisalpina (Liv. 32,7,13), in 189 legate of Cn.  Manlius Vulso in the campaign against the Galatians of Asia Minor (Pol. 21,34,2-4; Liv. 38,14,4f. etc.). MRR 1,327; 330; 364. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [I 2] H., M. Praetor in 197 BC in Hispania Citerior In 198 plebeian aedile, in 197 praetor in Hispania citerior. Kept there until 195 because of an illne…

Roman gens name from Etruria, whose bearers first appear in the 1st cent. BC. With V. [II 2] Saturninus the family was ennobled under the emperor Augustus and in the 1st cent. AD was able to amass considerable wealth (large burial site on the via Appia: CIL VI 7281-7393). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] Haruspex (Haruspices) in the retinue of C. Verres 73-71 BC, several times appointed recuperator in - according to Cicero (Verr. 2,2,75; 2,3,28; 54; 137) - unfair lawsuits. Fündling, Jörg (Bonn) [German version] [I 2] V., Cn. Travelled with C. Pompt…

Italian nomen gentile, with many bearers in Ameria (CIL XI 4507-16) and Lanuvium (CIL XIV 3225-7). Fündling, Jörg (Bonn) I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] R., L. Roman envoy killed in 438 BC by the Fidenati A Roman envoy killed in 438 BC together with his three colleagues by the Fidenati (Fidenae); because of this all three were honoured with statues on the Rostra (Cic. Phil. 9,4; Liv. 4,17,2-6). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [I 2] R., Sex. Father and son; the latter was defended by Cicero in 80 BC against the accusation of patricide and embezzlement From Ameria; so…

(Οἰνόμαος/ Oinómaos). [German version] [1] King of Pisa Mythological king of Pisa in the region of Elis, son of Ares and Asterope, father of Hippodamia [1] and Leucippus [2]. He forced his daughter's suitors to undergo a test by taking part in a chariot race. He used to kill the defeated suitors, until Pelops defeated O. with the help of his crafty charioteer Myrtilus [1], who replaced the linchpins holding the wheels on O.'s chariot with ones made of wax. Pelops won the race and the hand of Hippodamia,…

(In an older form also Peinarius, CIL I2 1357; 2469f.). Name of a patrician gens. According to tradition, they maintained a cult for Hercules at the Ara Maxima together with the Potitii (further evidence there). Hercules himself - or Evander [1] - is said to have transferred the cult to them at an extremely early time. The derivation of the name from πεινᾶν ( peinân, 'starve') is a scholarly construction based on the P. having had the smaller share in the sacrifices for Hercules (Serv. Aen. 8,270, i.a.). The family was also traced back to Pinus, the ostensib…