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Name of a patrician Roman family, derived from the praenomen Quintus (comparable to Sextus/ Sextius, etc.), often also Quintius in inscriptions and MSS. The origin of the family is unknown; its great age is suggested by its connection with the festival of the Lupercalia (Ov. Fast. 2,378 has Quintilii) and the unusual praenomen of the family, Kaeso, encountered in this context ( v. Q. [I 1]). Livy counts them among the families that migrated to Rome from Alba with King Tullius Hostilius (1,32,2; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 3,29,7 mentions the Quinctilii). The Quinctii are mentioned many tim…

Name of a Plebeian family (connection with the Campanian city of Pompeii is unclear). The family acquired political significance with P. [I 1]; he is the origin of the Rufi branch. With P. [I 8] a related branch attained consulship and with his son Cn. P. [I 3] Magnus supplied the most significant member of the gens. Both lineages continue until the early Imperial period (family trees: [1; 2; 3]). I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] P., Q. Consul 141 BC A homo novus and popular orator (Cic. Brut. 96), he became consul in 141 BC, despite resistance from the nobility a…

[German version] I. Greek (Μαρκέλλος; Markéllos). [German version] [I 1] From Pergamum, orator, 2nd cent. AD, [1] Rhetor from Pergamum known solely from a brief reference in the Suda; he is said to have written a book (or several books) entitled Ἀδριανὸς ἢ περὶ βασιλείας/ Adrianòs ḕ perì basileías (‘Hadrian, or On Monarchy’). He would thus have lived in the first half of the 2nd cent.; whether Dio's [I 3] speeches perì basileías, addressed to Trajan, served as a model is uncertain. Weißenberger, Michael (Greifswald) [German version] [I 2] From Side, physician and poet, 2nd cent. AD M. from …

Name of a Roman plebeian family probably deriving from the Italic praenomen Pompo, tracing back, like the Aemilii, Calpurnii and Pinarii, to one of the sons of Numa Pompilius (Plut. Numa 21,2; cf. Nep. Att. 1,1). In the 3rd century BC the Mathones (cf. P. [I 7-9]) achieved consulship, but later the family was insignificant. The most prominent member was a friend of Cicero, T. P. [I 5] Atticus. I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] P., Cn. People's tribune in 90 BC People's tribune in 90 BC, killed in the Civil War in 82; Cicero quite often heard him in his youth; his j…

Name of a plebeian gens (probably derived from Caeculus, older form is Caicilios, Greek Καικίλιος, Κεκίλιος [ Kaikílios, Kekílios]; ThlL, Onom. 12-14), whose existence is documented since the 5th cent. (since C. [I 1]), but who only gained importance in the 2nd cent.; their most famous branch were the C. Metelli (I 10-32). A later explanation related the name back to Caeculus, the legendary founder of Praeneste, or Caecas, a companion of Aeneas (Fest. p. 38). I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] C., Q. Supposedly people's tribune in 439 BC Supposedly people's tribune in 439 BC …

Roman surname, derived from the name of the goddess Iuno [1. 470; 2. 731]. The gens was plebeian; the idea that this family originated from the patrician founder of the Republic L. I. [I 4] Brutus (Cic. Att. 13,40,1), which was particularly propagated by the murderers of Caesar, M. and D. I. Brutus [I 10 and 12], was already a matter of controversy in ancient times (Plut. Brutus 1,6-8). T.  Pomponius Atticus (Nep. Att. 18,3) composed a family history at the request of M. Brutus. This gens became politically im…

(Ἰσίδωρος; Isídōros). [German version] [1] Pirate captain, defeated by Lucullus at Tenedus in 72 BC Pirate captain who organized the Cilician pirates in the area around Crete, was besieged in 78 BC by P. Servilius Isauricus (Flor. 1,41,3), later entered the service of Mithridates and in 72 was defeated by Lucullus in the naval battle of Tenedos at the entrance to the Dardanelles (App. Mithr. 77, Memnon 42,2 = FHG 3,548) and killed (Plut. Lucullus 12.2). Strothmann, Meret (Bochum) [German version] [2] I. of Charax Geographer, end of 1st cent. BC Geographer, certainly of the Augustan p…

Name of probably the most important Roman plebeian family. The similarity to the Etruscan name lecne and the links between the gens and Etruria in historical times (L. [I 7]) suggest an origin in that region [1. 108, n. 3]; the name may, however, also be of Latin origin ( Licinus). The spelling with a double ‘n’ occurs not only in the Greek form Λικίννιος ( Likínnios), but also in Latin inscriptions [1. 108, n. 1]. In the annalistic historical records dealing with the early Republic, members of the family appear among the earliest people's tribunes, reaching their polit…

(Ἰωάννης; Iōánnēs). Well-known persons i.a.: I. [1] the Evangelist, I. [4] Chrysostomos, bishop of Constantinople and Homilet, I. [18] Malalas, author of the world chronicle, I. [25] of Gaza, rhetor and poet, I. [33] of Damascus, the theologian, I. [39] Baptistes. [1] I. the Evangelist [German version] A. Tradition and criticism According to the inscriptions, the author of a  Gospel (Jo), of three letters and the Apocalypse in the NT is called I. (= J.; the name appears only in Apc. 1:1; 1:4; 1:9; 22:8). Since the end of the 2nd cent. (Iren. adv…

Name of an old patrician family, probably connected with the name of the god  Jupiter [1. 281; 2. 729]. The gens was one of the so-called ‘Trojan families’, who were said to have moved from Alba Longa to Rome under king Tullus Hostilius [I 4] (see below). The Iulii were prominent in the 5th and 4th cents. BC. Their connection to the family branch of the Caesares, which rose to prominence from the 3rd cent. and whose outstanding member was the dictator  Caesar (with family tree), is unclear. Caesar's adoptive son,…