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[German version] A. General After a person's death the treatment and taking of his body to a particular place called grave ( Funerary architecture), mostly connected with death rituals. Burial customs varied depending on the society's religious concepts and particularly the concepts of  afterlife and the (social) status of the deceased or those organizing the burial. The main types of burial are inhumation or cremation (ash burial). There is also evidence of individual cases from the Neolithic Peri…

Roman nomen gentile, which can almost certainly be traced back to the praenomen G. attested from the beginning of the 3rd cent. BC. There is evidence of the bearers of the name in the political life of Rome from the 2nd cent. BC. [German version] [1] Stepbrother of L. Marcius Philippus (Cos. 56 BC) Stepbrother of L. Marcius Philippus ( cos. 56 BC), otherwise unknown supporter of P. Clodius [I 4] from the equestrian class, defamed by Cicero as ‘the wet-nurse of all revolutionaries’ (Cic. Vatin. 4; Cic. Sest. 110-112). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [2] G., Cn. Rom. historia…

Plebeian gentilicium, also Coilius, in surviving manuscripts often confused with Caelius (Schulze 155; ThlL, Onom. 2, 523-525). Bearers of this name are documented since the 2nd cent. BC, usually belonging to the Tribus Aemilia. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] C. Antipater, L. Historiographer, late 2nd cent. BC Possibly the brother of the senator C. Coelius C.f. [1; 2. 16], a highly educated scholar of law and rhetoric (Cic. Brut. 102; Dig. 1,2,2,40), considered the teacher and friend of L. Licinius Crassu…

[German version] I. Ancient Near East Knowledge of one's own progenitors in the ancient Near East legitimized one's status and material and immaterial rights in the individual and societal spheres. Such knowledge was based on patriarchal relationships of kinship. Evidence for this comes, for example, from lineage lists (Genealogies; OT: Gn 5; 11:10-32; 22:20-24; 25:1-9; Judges 4:18-22: progenitors of David [1]; 1 Sam 9:1-2: progenitors of Saul; Mt 1:1-17: progenitors of Jesus), the Assyrian Kings' Lis…

[German version] [1] Wife of Q. Lucretius [II 5] Vespillo, 1st cent. BC Wife of the senator Q. Lucretius [II 5] Vespillo, saved her husband by concealing him from the proscriptions of 43 BC (Val. Max. 6,7,2; App. B Civ. 4,189-192). Her long-standing traditional identification with the deceased addressed in an epigraphically preserved funerary oration from Rome (known as the Laudatio Turiae ) is uncertain but not ruled out (cf. [1. 10 f.], sceptical: [2. 1-8]). T. would then have died no later than 9 BC after 41 years of marriage. Kierdorf, Wilhelm (Cologne) Bibliography 1 A. E. Gor…

Plebeian nomen (Schulze 266; 424), attested historically from the beginning of the 2nd cent. BC. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] F.M. f., C. Rom. senator and historian, partaker in the storming of Carthage Roman senator and historian (in Cic. Brut. 99 falsely differentiated from a relative). F. distinguished himself in 146 BC with Ti. Gracchus at the storming of Carthage (Plut. Gracchi 4,6), fought in 141 as tribunus militum in Spain (App. Ib. 287), was the son-in-law of C.  Laelius and heard  Panaetius (Cic. Brut. 100f.). In…

(Greek κλῆρος/ klêros , Lat. sors). I. Political [German version] A. Greece The lot was used especially in democracies, but not only in such, as a means to distribute office among those who were equally eligible, rather than appointing the best candidate under the circumstances. For Athens, the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia states that Solon introduced the selection of the archons by lot from a short list of pre-selected candidates ([Aristot.] Ath. pol. 8,1; but differing: Aristot. Pol. 2,1273b 35-1274a 3; 1274a 16-17; 3,1281b 25-34). In the…

Common given name of Oscan or Umbrian origin not used by the Roman upper class (abbreviated in inscriptions as Sa. or Sal.), later appears as a nomen gentile; also a slave name. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican Era [German version] [I 1] Slave leader (Slave leader) see Tryphon [2]. Bartels, Jens (Bonn) [German version] [I 2] Centurion named only by Plutarch as one of Pompeius' murderers Centurion named only in Plut. Pompeius 78,1 and 79,4 as one of Pompey's murderers. Bartels, Jens (Bonn) [German version] [I 3] Freedman and probable agent of Caesar Freedman probably active as …

Name of a Roman plebeian family. Bearers of the name, recorded from the 3rd cent. BC, not of urban Roman origin, emerged as business people from the 2nd cent. (ILLRP 723b; 747; 1025) and received Roman citizenship perhaps only after the Social War [3]. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] L., L. Proscribed in 82 BC Read his name on one of Sulla's lists of proscribed persons in 82 BC and was thereupon immediately killed on leaving the Forum (Oros. 5,21,4f.). Fündling, Jörg (Bonn) [German version] [I 2] L., L. Pompey's legate against the pirates in 67 BC Pompey'…

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…

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 a late-Republican construction. An aedile called M. supposedly instituted the Cerealia (before 211 BC; RRC 427). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] M., C. Popular politician at the end of the 2nd cent. BC Popular politician at the end of the 2nd centur…

Name of a plebeian lineage, originally probably not from the city of Rome, which was raised to the nobility in the 3rd cent. BC with the brothers L. [1] and [5] (Families: Catuli and Cercones). The gens was very wealthy (Suet. Gram. 3) and owned a family grave on the right bank of the Tiber (Oros. 5,21,7; Val. Max. 9,2,1). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] L. Catulus, C. Consul 242 BC Elder brother of L. [5]. Was the first in his family to attain the consulate in 242 BC. Since his patrician colleague, the flamen dialis A. Postumius Albinus, was forbidden by the pontifex maximus L. C…

Name of a plebeian family that gained prominence during the Second Punic War (Schulze, 266). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] C., L. Antiquarian author, 1st cent. BC? Antiquarian author probably of the late Republican period (1st cent. BC; since [6] differentiated from the historian L.C.Alimentus). Seven works of grammarian, antiquarian and legal content are known from quotes in Festus, Gellius and others (fragments: [1. 1,252ff.; 2. 71ff.]): De verbis priscis, De fastis, De comitiis, De consulum potestate, De officio iurisconsulti (at least two vols.), De re …

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…

Name of a plebeian gens in Rome, probably of Etruscan origin (ThlL, Onom. 101-104) [1. 138]; attested from the 3rd cent. BC. The most important family into the 1st cent. AD was that of the Calpurnii Pisones (I 13ff.). Family connections and the identification of individual members in the Republican period have not been completely clarified. Late Republican pseudo-genealogy declared Calpus, one of the sons of king Numa, the progenitor of the gens (Hor. Ars P. 292; Laus. Pis. 3f.; 14f.; Plut. Numa 21,2 et al.; portraits of Numa on coins of the Calpurnii). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Repu…

Name of a Roman plebeian family of little political significance except for L. M. [I 3], the destroyer of Corinth. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] Author of Atellan farces, propably Augustan According to Pomponius Bononiensis and Novius [I 1], who presumably lived about 90 BC, M. revived the atellan farces, which had laid dormant for some time (Macrob. Sat. 1,10,3). His Old Latin metre (use of iambic shortening) and language (abl. testu) suggest that he probably did not write later than the Augustan period, during which other …

Roman patrician gentilic name (from the praenomen Postumus ), found in the highest offices from the 5th cent. BC on and politically significant until the 2nd cent. BC. As dictator in 499 or 496 BC, an A. P. is supposed to have decided the battle at Lacus Regillus (Liv. 2,19-20). The Albi or Albini (Regillenses), who withdrew from politics with P. [I 9]'s military failure in the Jugurthine War at the end of the 2nd cent. BC, are his descendants. I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] P., C. Etruscan haruspex, even consulted by Sulla Etruscan haruspex ( haruspices …

Roman gens name, probably taken from the forename Manius, which in mss is frequently confused with Mallius, Manilius, Manlius. The family was significant in the 2nd cent. BC through M. [I 3] and [I 4]. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] M. (or Manlius?), L. Writer, senator AD 97, [I 1] M. (or Manlius?), L. Senator in 97 BC, wrote about the Phoenix (as first in Lat.: Plin. HN 10,4f.), about natural wonders and sacred law. Fündling, Jörg (Bonn) Bibliography Schanz/Hosius 1, 605f. [German version] [I 2] M., C. People's tribune in 66 AD People's tribune in …

Family name of Oscan origin. [I 184]. The family was prominent in Capua (M. [I 3], cf. Cic. Pis. 24) and M.'s [I 5] sons were the first to be admitted to the Senate in the 1st cent. BC. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] Grandfather of the poet Vergilius on his mother's side Grandfather of the poet Vergilius on his mother's side; was allegedly an official messenger ( viator ; Donat. Vita Vergilii 1). Kierdorf, Wilhelm (Cologne) [German version] [I 2] M., Cn. Governor of Numidia AD 256-258. From Larinum in Samnium, died about 88 BC; heir of his (half…

Italian surname (on its Etruscan connection cf. [1. 182f.]). In the 5th and 4th cents. BC we encounter the patrician family of the Lucretii Tricipitini (among others with the rare praenomen Hostus) which later died out; from the 3rd cent. BC onwards several plebeian families are known (Gallus, Ofella, Trio, Vespillo). The most important bearers of the name are Lucretia [2] from early Roman history and the poet L. [III 1]. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] L. Prosecutor of M. Livius Drusus [I 5] Claudianus In 54 BC he prosecuted M. Livius Drusus …

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 …

Roman patrician family name, probably derived from Etruscan fapi [1. 162]. According to ancient etymology, however, either from faba ‘(broad)bean’ (‘legume grower’: Plin. HN 18,10; [2]) or from the original ‘Fodius’, ‘Fovius’ (‘wolf pit hunter’: Plut. Fabius 1,2; Fest. 77 L.) because the Fabii with the Quinctii originally appointed the priesthood of the Luperci; the  Lupercalia were also the family celebration of the Fabii (Ov. Fast. 193ff.). Early Imperial pseudogenealogy, which perhaps arose in the literary ci…

(in Greek usually Μάλλιος/ Mállios, often confused in MSS with Mallius and Manilius). Name of a Roman patrician family, probably of Etruscan origin [1. 227]. It attained an early political zenith in the 5th and 4th cents. BC with the Vulsones and Capitolini branches (continued by the Torquati). Sources connect the family's history primarily with the repelling of the Celts ( M. [I 8] and [I 12]. Stemmata, details of which are uncertain: [2. 1157f., 1166]). A period of decline ended in about 260 BC wi…

Name of a Roman plebeian house (originally Ailius), verifiable from the 4th cent. BC until the late imperial era. The most important families are the Paeti (since the 4th cent. BC), Tuberones (since the 2nd cent. BC), and from the 1st cent. also the Galli and Lamiae. In the imperial era, especially since Hadrian, the most famous bearer of the name, the name Aelius is so widespread that it -- just like Flavius and Aurelius -- loses its character as nomen gentile. I. Republic [German version] [I 1] Ae. Unknown author of a lex Aelia, mid 2nd cent. BC unknown author of a lex Aelia (mostly mentioned t…

Name of a widely-branched Roman plebeian family who became well known from the beginning of the 2nd cent. BC on, but only achieved the consulate for the first time at the end of the cent. I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] R. Lupus, P. Consul in 90 BC Praetor no later than 93 BC; consul in 90. During the Social War [3], he received the command of the northern army; against the advice of his legate C. Marius [I 1], he was lured into an ambush by the Marsi and was killed in the valley of the Tolnus (modern Turano; Liv. Per. 73; App. B Civ. 1,191-194; Oros. 5,18,11 f.). MRR 2,25. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig…

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…

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 (cf. Tac. Ann. 6,15,1), the representatives of whom have been known historically since the middle of the 3rd cent. BC. The most important family, especially in the 1st cent. BC, are the Cassii Longini. A patrician C. (around 500 BC, C. I 19) is rare. I. Republican age [German version] [I 1] C., C. Governor of Asia 89-88 BC Praetor 90 BC (?), in 89-88 governor of the province of Asia whence he, with M'. Aquillius [I 4], induced Nicomedes of Bithynia to attack  Mithridates (MRR 2,34). He then had to retreat from the victorious Mithridat…

Name of a Roman lineage (Sabine Clausus, with the vernacular variant of   Clodius , esp. in the 1st cent. BC). The Claudii supposedly immigrated to Rome from the Sabine city of Regillum at the beginning of the republic in 504 BC under their ancestor Att(i)us Clausus ( Appius) and were immediately accepted into the circle of patrician families (Liv. 2,16,4-6), which explains why the early members received the invented epithets of Inregillensis C. [I 5-6] and Sabinus C. [I 31-32], [1. 155f.]. The praenomen Appius came to signify the family. Named after them was the Tribus Claudi…

Old Roman nomen gentile, derived from the prename Marcus. Tradition knows of a patrician branch with the (mythical) king Ancus M. [I 3] and Cn. M. Coriolanus as its most important members. The younger members of the family (from the 3rd cent.) were plebeian without a link to the patrician Marcii being evident. Important families included the Rutili, later also the Censorini, Tremuli, Reges and Rallae. In the Late Republic the family claimed descent from the kings Ancus M. and Numa Pompilius (therefore the cognomen Rex, see M. [I 5]; RRC 346; 425; Suet. Iul. 6,1; [4. 154]) as wel…

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…