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Roman nomen gentile, attested from the 1st cent. BC evident mainly in Gallia Cisalpina (frequently confused with Verginius in MSS). The spelling Virgilius for the name of the poet Vergilius [4] is only documented from the 5th cent. AD onwards. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] V. (less frequently: Verginius), C. Legate of Calpurnius [I 19] in Macedonia, 57-55 BC 57-55 BC; legate of Calpurnius [I 19] in Macedonia; depicted by Cicero (Prov. cons. 7) as an example of integrity in contrast with Piso. Perhaps (as in MRR 2,205) identical with V. [2]. Fündling, Jörg (Bonn) …

Name of a Roman plebeian family, who probably came from Latium and was accepted into Roman nobility when Latium was integrated politically in 338 BC ( Latin law). The most important branches were first the Salinatores, then the Drusi (on the cognomen see Drusus). The third wife of Augustus and mother of the emperor Tiberius, Livia [2] Drusilla came from this branch (Stemma see Augustus; the family history of the branch is in Suet. Tib. 3). The line of the Salinatores was continued in the late Republic by the Livii Ocellae, who i.a. produced Livia Ocella, the stepmother of the emperor Galba [2]. E…

[German version] [1] E., Q. Latin writer of the pre-classical period Latin writer of the pre-classical period. E. (239-169 BC) is the most important and versatile Latin writer (Fronto p. 134,1 H.2) of the pre-classical period. Although ‘a foreigner in Rome’ [21] (sociologically a dependent poet, poeta cliens [33]) and representative of Hellenistic education, he contributed to shaping the Roman national consciousness through sentences such as moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque (Ann. 500 V.; see Cic. Rep. 5,1). Suerbaum, Werner (Munich) [German version] A. Life Most of the …

[German version] [1] Roman praenomen Rare Roman praenomen; Siglum: SER, at times confused with Sergius; carried by King S. Tullius in the 6th cent. BC. Up to the Imperial Period, it was used mainly by the noble families of Cornelii, Fulvii and Sulpicii. The nomen gentile Servīlius is derived from S., specifically from an undocumented diminutive of S. The etymology is regarded as uncertain, but an Etruscan origin is unlikely. Present-day scholarship is largely unanimous in regarding the ancient opinion that S. Tullius was the son of a slave as based on the similarity in sound of servus, 'sla…

Name of a Plebeian family from Tusculum. In the belief that the family had been pig-breeders, in antiquity their name was derived from porcus  (Varro Rust. 2,1,10 etc.). From the middle of the 3rd century BC, the Catones and Licinii branches belonged to Rome's leading class and at the beginning of the 2nd century, they attained the consulship with  Cato [1] (Censorius) and P. [I 13]. The exact blood relationship between the most prominent bearer of the name, Cato [1], and his great-grandson, P. [I 7] Cato (Uticensis), is not completely clarified. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republic…