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(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 an originally Etruscan plebeian family (Etruscan form Velimna) that was significant in the early Republic. The Volumnii of the 1st cent. BC are not its descendants. The tomb of the V. in Perusia (modern Perugia) with bilingual inscriptions (CIL XI 1963 - CIE 3763) was used from the 2nd cent. onwards. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] V., P. Fought in 42 BC as a friend of M. Iunius [I 10] Brutus in the battle of Philippi, and wrote about it in a now lost work (Plut. Brutus 48; 51). Possibly identical to V. [4]? Bartels, Jens (Bonn) [German version] [2] V. Amintinus Gallus…

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). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] S., L. Mint magistrate in 101 BC (RRC 328) and praetor urbanus c. 93-89 (ILS 8208; Syme, RP 2, 608 f.). Bartels, Jens (Bonn) [German version] [I 2] S. Saturninus Vetulo Proscribed in 43 BC, took refuge on Sicily (Val. Max. 7,3,9). With his cousin Scribonius [I 7] Libo he led the embassy to Antonius [B I 9] for Sex. Pompeius [I 5] in 40 B…

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 are the Ahalae and Fidenates in the 5th and 4th cents. BC; the Caepiones and Gemini, from whom the Vatiae (Isaurici) descended, appear in the 3rd cent. The last prominent member of the Servilii Caepiones was the murderer of Caesar, M. Iunius [I 10] Brutus, son of Servilia [1], and himself adopted into the family. I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] A fleet commander in the B…

Roman family name, probably derived from Varus. Name-bearers first attested in the 1st cent. BC, but only in the Imperial period did they attain any prominence. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] V. Cotyla, L. Aedile in 48, 47 or 44 BC (Cic. Phil. 13,26), emissary at Rome for M. Antonius [I 9] in 43, and his legate in Gallia transalpina (Cic. Phil. 5,5-7; 8,24-32; Plut. Antonius 18,8). Bartels, Jens (Bonn) [German version] [I 2] V. Rufus, L. Roman poet, c. 70-15 BC Renowned Roman poet (Hor. Ars P. 55) of the Augustan period (c. 70-15 BC). Wi…

I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] P. Relative of Cicero's second wife Publilia A close relative (brother?) of Cicero's second wife Publilia; for this reason, he is frequently mentioned in Cicero's letters to T. Pomponius [I 5] Atticus. Bartels, Jens (Bonn) [German version] [I 2] P., Volero People's tribune in 472 and 471 BC People's tribune in 472 and 471 BC (MRR 1, 29 f.). P. is said to have introduced a bill in 472 to have the election of the tribunes of the plebs take place not in the comitia curiata, which were dominated by patricians and their clients, but in the comitia tributa (Co…

Name of a Roman patrician family, derived from the praenomen Quintus; in inscriptions and MSS also Quintilius. In the annalistic tradition the family was one of Rome's oldest, supposed to have arrived in Rome under the king Tullus Hostilius (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 3,29,7; cf. Liv. 1,30,2, though he has Quinctii); of a consul recorded in 453 BC and a consular tribune in 403 nothing further is known. In the historical period, members of the family are known from the end of the 3rd cent. on (bearing the inherited cognomen Varus), but they achieved no lasting noble status. The most promin…

Roman nomen gentile, possibly connected to the Etruscan pupu. The family is otherwise politically insignificant; the adoptive father of the consul for 61 BC, P. [I 3], is unknown. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republic [German version] [I 1] In Horace, the author of tragedies, 1st cent. BC The only source for the author P. is Horatius (Epist. 1,1,67). According to this, P. was probably an author of tragedies. He lived in the 1st cent. BC. The scope and precise content of his poetry is unknown. Günther, Matthias (Bielefeld) Bibliography Bardon, vol. 2, 47  Courtney, 307. …

Nomen gentile, probably originally Etruscan, occurred at Rome only from the 1st cent. BC onwards. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] A certain S. from Camerinum was commissioned to recruit followers for Catilina at Picenum in 63 BC, presumably because he was of the Umbrian-Picenan municipal nobility (cf. CIL I2 1921; 1929) (Sall. Catil. 27,1). Bartels, Jens (Bonn) [German version] [I 2] Friend of Horace's; he hoped to enter the cohors amicorum of a member of the imperial household through his relationship with the latter (Hor. Carm.…

Widespread Italic nomen gentile. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] V., L. Roman equestrian from Picenum, c. 106-59 BC. In 89 BC, V. probably served on the staff of Cn. Pompeius [I 8] Strabo (ILS 8888; [1. 161 f.]) and subsequently enriched himself as a favourite of L. Cornelius [I 90] Sulla (Sall. Hist. 1,55,17). He later joined the conspiracy of Catilina (Q. Tullius Cic. commentariolum petitionis 10), but betrayed it to Cicero in 63 BC (Cass. Dio. 37,41; Oros. 6,6,7). In 62, it seems that opponents o…

Name of an old patrician family. The tribus Sergia was named after it. The family is attested to have attained consulship in the 5th cent. BC (S. [I 5]) but did not achieve lasting importance in the historical period. The attempt of its best-known member, L.S. Catilina, to attain the consulship once more failed with the Catilinarian Conspiracy. I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] S., M. The brother of L.S. Catilina (?) According to Plutarch (Sulla 32,3; Cicero 10,3), the brother of L.S. Catilina, killed by him in 81 and posthumously put on the proscriptions…

Name of a Roman family. According to tradition, its members of the 5th cent. BC (Atratini, S. [I 3-8]) are supposed to have been patricians and champions of patrician privileges (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 10,41,5; 10,42,3), an assumption that may have been a retrospective invention (the Sempronii only became patricians under Caesar or Augustus); in the historical period, we know only of plebeian branches of the family during the Republic (Asellio, Blaesus, Gracchus, Longus, Tuditanus) who played an important role in the 3rd and 2nd cents. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican Period …

Name of a Roman plebeian family, probably from Caudium (CIL I2 1744 f.) and attested from the time of the 2nd Punic War. The branch of the Libones (S. [I 5-7; II 4-7]) attained the consulship with S. [I 7] and was part of the Roman high nobility in the early Imperial period. The Curiones (S. [I 1-4]), prominent in the 2nd and 1st cents. BC, disappeared with the Republic. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] S. Curio, C. As aedile in 196 BC, he built the Temple of Faunus on the Tiber Island. Praetor urbanus in 183 and the second plebeian to be elected curio [2] maximus …

Roman nomen gentile of Sabine origin. Its members begin to appear in the sources late in the 3rd cent. BC. Politically the most important branch was that of the Terentii Varrones which attained the ranks of the nobility with T. [I 14] Varro, consul in 216 BC. From the mid-2nd cent., several families of this branch were in simultaneous and unconnected existence. Cognomina showing geographical origins are widespread among the Terentii (Afer, Lucanus, Massaliota). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] As people's tribune in 54 BC, T. prevented…

Name of an old patrician family, which was said to have immigrated to Rome under King T. Tatius with V. [I 10] (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 2,46). The name, derived from the old personal name Valesus/ Valerus, was originally Valesios (cf. V. [I 7]; CIL XII p. 298g: Valesies; Fest. 22; Varro, Rerum divinarum fr. 66 Cardauns [4; 5]); the censor App. Claudius [I 2] introduced the new spelling in 312 BC (cf. Dig. 1,2, 2,36). Because in Antiquity the name was derived (etymologically correctly) from valere, 'to be strong', it was considered to be a good omen ( boni ominis nomen, Cic. Div. 1,102; Cic. Sca…

(Διόδωρος, Διόδορος; Diódōros, Diódoros). Well-known representatives of the name: the philosopher D. [4] Kronos, the mathematician D. [8] of Alexandria, the universal historian D. [18] Siculus, the early Christian theologian D. [20] of Tarsus. [German version] [1] Athenian fleet commander in the Peloponnesian War Athenian, fleet commander with Mantitheus at the end of 408-407 BC at the Hellespont with a sufficient number of ships, so that Alcibiades [3] was able to sail to Samos and Thrasyllus and Theramenes to Athens (Diod. Sic. 13,68,2). (Traill, PAA 329550; Develin 171). Kinzl, …