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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…

During the Republican era, the praenomen Numerius (abbr. N.) was used in Roman aristocracy only by the Fabii (Fabius). They are said to have borrowed it from Samnium around 470 BC (Fest. 174 et passim). In fact, this praenomen is found most frequently during the Republican period in Oscan inscriptions: Niumsis, Νυμψισ, Νο(μ)ψισ < * Numesis (the Latin N. as well is most frequent in the former Oscan region); in addition there is the Umbrian Numesier (= Latin Nomesi; bilingual inscription [3. 9]). In Latin the original Oscan-Umbrian name was affected by rhotacism and was ass…

(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…

Name of a Roman plebeian family, documented since the first cent. BC (the name in Liv. 4,54,3 is probably a later invention). Under Augustus the family attained the consulate, but it disappeared at the end of the first cent. AD. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] S., P. Praetor c. 58 or 52 BC, as propraetor of Bithynia et Pontus 51-50 BC addressee of laudatory letters from Cicero (Cic. Fam. 13,47; 61-65; cf. 7,21). S., who was regarded as an authority on Asia Minor, brought an inheritance lawsuit in 44 BC (Cic. Att. 7,1,8). His son is probably S. [II 7]. Fündli…

Uncommon Latin praenomen , abbreviation V. The etymology of the name is unknown. Like the identical nomen gentilicium, it derives from the Osco-Umbrian Vībie/o-. Related nomina gentilicia were Vibidius, Vibuleius, Vibulenus. The praenomen and its feminine equivalent Vībia- were loaned into Etruscan as Vipie and Vipia respectively. The nomen gentilicium formed from that, Vipi(e)na, appears in Latinized form as Vibenna . Steinbauer, Dieter (Regensburg) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] V. Curius Prefect of Caesar, to whom troops of L. Manlius [I 18] Torquatu…

Roman family name, variant of Venilius (Schulze, 378; 458). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] L. V. Apronianus Octavius Priscus Son of V. [4]. Cos. ord. in AD 123; procos. of Asia 138/9, SEG 36, 987. Eck, Werner (Cologne) Bibliography Scheid, Collège, 338-342. [German version] [2] L. V. Apronianus Octavius Priscus Senator. Son of V. [1]. Although a Patrician, after a praetorship he took on command of the Legio I Italica in Moesia Inferior. Cos. suff. under Antoninus [1] Pius; also a consular legate in Hispania Tarraconensis. Cos. ord. II in AD 168. Eck, Werner (Cologne) B…

Praenomen of Oscan origin, particularly widespread in Upper Italy (cf. S. Gellius [3], S. Abbius Oppianicus); later also occurring as nomen gentile with many variants [1. 37, 237, 469]. I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] A Samnite, in 90 BC a leader of the Itali in the Social Wars [3], later (81?) on the Roman side. Proscribed at the age of 80 in 43 BC, he distributed his property and burned himself to death in his empty house (App. B Civ. 4,102). Fündling, Jörg (Bonn) [German version] [I 2] A slave and close friend of Cicero's brother Quintus, from 61 to 59 BC Quintus' pro…

Plebeian family name, documented in Rome since the 1st cent. BC (on the derivation of asinus [1], on Etruscan parallels [2]). The family, whose most famous name-bearer was Asinus Pollio, originally came from Teate Marrucinorum (modern Chieti), was a member of the patrician class since the Augustan period and was particularly prominent in the 1st cent. AD. I. Republic [German version] [I 1] A. Senator (mid-1st cent. BC) Senator, supporter of Antony at Mutina in 43 BC (Cic. Phil. 13, 28).…

[German version] [1] Roman emperor, born AD 51 Roman emperor; original name T. Flavius Domitianus = Imperator Caesar Domitianus Augustus. Eck, Werner (Cologne) [German version] A. Up to the death of Titus Born on 24 Oct. AD 51 in Rome; his parents were T. Flavius  Vespasianus and Flavia Domitilla. D. spent his childhood in Rome; he did not accompany his father Vespasian to Judaea. His life was first threatened in the 2nd half of 69 during the reign of Vitellius, when D.'s father had already been proclaimed emperor, and fighting broke out between Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian's brother and city prefect of Rome, and the Vitellians. He escaped from the burning Capitol disguised as a follower of Isis; c…

I Greek [German version] [I 1] Greek rhetor, prob. late 3rd/4th cent. (Τιβέριος/ Tibérios). Greek rhetor, probably of the late 3rd or 4th cents. AD, author of a small surviving treatise on figures (Περὶ τῶν παρὰ Δημοσθένει σχημάτων, Perì tòn parà Demosthénei schēmáton, 'On the figures in Demosthenes'), which uses Apsines as its mai…

Roman family name (also Offellius, Offillius etc.), probably from the Oscan praenomen Of(f)ellus, which also appears as a cognomen (a landowner in Venusia: Hor. Sat. 2,2,2f.; 53f.; 112ff.). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] O. Tribunus militum, 36 BC Tribunus militum in 36 BC, mocked rewards handed out by Octavian (Augustus) as paltry, whereupon according to Appian he vanished without trace (App. B Civ. 5,532f.). Fündling, Jörg (Bonn) [German version] [2] O., A. Roman jurist Jurist, see Ofilius Eck, Werner (Cologne) [German version] [2a] O. Ferus, C. Campanian trader In the last quarter of the 2nd cent. BC, the Italics living on Delos honoured the Campanian trader O. for his services with a marble portrait statue (sculptors: Dionysius [48] and Timarchides [1]). Fragments of this statue were found in 1880 during the French excavations in the agora of the Italics; O. was depicted with the paludamentum on …

Roman family name, evident from the 3rd. cent. BC, in Rome from the 1st cent. (Schulze, 135 ThlL, Onom. 49-51). I. Republican Age [German version] …

[German version] [0] C. U. Antoninus Proconsul of Lycia-Pamphylia (communication from M. Waelkens). Whether he is identical with the senator U. Antoninus who participated in the secular games of AD 204 [1] must remain an open question. Eck, Werner (Cologne) Bibliography W. Eck, s. v. U. (25), RE Supplementum 14, 935. …

Roman plebeian gens name, whose bearers may have originated from the territory of the Volscians and who rose to prominence (in several branches) during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. They rose to consular rank only with M. [I 4]. The descent of the gens from the Trojan Mnestheus (Verg. Aen. 5,117) is…

Lat. gentile name (Etruscan arntni ?) also as Arentius in inscriptions, derived from the Etruscan name Arruns ([1]; ThLL 2,647). The gens appeared in Rome in the 1st cent. BC, attained the consulate under Augustus and was then probably accepted into the patriciate at that time (see Stat. Silv. 1.2.71 concerning the poet Arruntius [II 12] Stella). I. Republic [German version] [I 1]…

Plebeian gentilicium ([1]; ThlL 2,1338f.). Bearers of this name are known since the 2nd cent. BC in Rome and occupy im…

[German version] [1] Military tribune in the army of Vespasianus in Iudaea Military tribune in the army of Vespasianus in Iudaea. in AD 67, following the conquest of Iotapata, he was instructed to convince Iosephus [4], the leader of the Jewish army, to surrender to Vespasianus, but proved unsuccessfu…

Italian family name, attested at Rome from the 1st cent. BC, but of political importance only from the time of Augustus, with S. [II 4-6] (Schulze, 228).…

Name of a Roman patrician family (epigraphically also Serveilius), said to have migrated to Rome from Alba Longa under king Tullus Hostilius [4] (Liv. 1,30,2; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 3,29,7). The oldest branches ar…