Genucia (gens)

The gens Genucia was a prominent family of the Roman Republic. It was probably of patrician origin, but most of the Genucii appearing in history were plebeian. The first of the Genucii to hold the consulship was Titus Genucius Augurinus in 451 BC.[1]

Origin

The Genucii have traditionally been regarded as a gens with both patrician and plebeian branches, in part because they held consulships in 451 and 445 BC, when the office is generally supposed to have been closed to the plebeians. But in support of the argument that Titus Genucus Augurinus, the consul of 451, was a plebeian, it has been noted that several other consuls in the decades preceding the decemvirate bore names that in later times were regarded as plebeian.[lower-roman 1] Further, Diodorus Siculus gives the consul's name as Minucius. But Livy, Dionysius, and the Capitoline Fasti all give Genucius, and the same man is supposed to have been one of the first college of decemvirs; all of the other decemvirs that year were patricians. If the consulship were not absolutely closed to the plebeians before the decemvirate, all historical sources agree that it was when Marcus Genucius was consul in 445.[lower-roman 2][1][4]

Plebeian Genucii appear as early as 476 BC, when a Titus Genucius was Tribune of the Plebs. If the gens was originally patrician, then the plebeian Genucii may have arisen as the result of intermarriage with the plebeians, or because some of the Genucii were expelled from the patriciate or voluntarily chose to become plebeians. Throughout the history of the Republic, these Genucii were renowned as representatives of and advocates for the rights of the plebeian order.[1]

Praenomina

The Genucii of the Republic favoured the praenomina Lucius, Titus, Marcus, and Gnaeus, all of which were very common throughout Roman history.

Branches and cognomina

The surnames of the Genucii under the Republic included Aventinensis, Augurinus, Cipus or Cippus, and Clepsina.[1]

Augurinus, also the name of a family in the Minucia gens, is derived from the priestly occupation of an augur, although it cannot be determined whether the family acquired this name because one of its ancestors was an augur, or because he resembled one in some respect. The Genucii Augurini were the oldest family of the Genucii, and are generally believed to have been patricians, as two of them held the consulship before it was open to the plebeians; but the Capitoline Fasti give Augurinus as the surname of Gnaeus Genucius, one of the consular tribunes of BC 399 and 396, who was a plebeian, according to Livy. This apparent inconsistency would be avoided if the Fasti mistakenly assigned him the surname Augurinus instead of Aventinensis, which was the name of a plebeian family of the Genucii. Alternatively, some of the Genucii Augurini may have gone over to the plebeians, as the Minucii Augurini appear to have done.[5][6]

The surname Aventinensis indicates one who lived on the Aventine Hill, one of the Seven Hills of Rome. The Aventinenses appear in the middle of the fourth century BC, and might have been descended from the Augurini, if Gnaeus Genucius Augurinus, the consular tribune, were the grandfather of Lucius Genucius Aventinensis, consul in BC 365 and 362. In this case, the consular tribune must have had a brother, Marcus, whose son or grandson was consul in 363.[7]

The Clepsinae may have been a patrician family, and they are so described in the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, but other sources do not mention whether they were patrician or plebeian. If they were plebeians, they might have been descended from the Aventinenses, since the two Clepsinae share the filiation "L. f. L. n."; they could have been the sons of Lucius Genucius Aventinensis, consul in 303 BC.[8][9]

Members

This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.

Genucii Augurini

Genucii Aventinenses

Genucii Clepsinae

Others

Footnotes

  1. Particularly L. Junius Brutus, one of the first consuls in 509 BC, S. Cassius Viscellinus in 502, 493, and 486, and M'. Tullius Longus in 500; from this some scholars conclude that the consulship was not formally closed to the plebeians until the decemvirate. Others argue that their names may have been later insertions, or even that the distinction between the orders was not fully developed at the beginning of the Republic. However, as Broughton notes with respect to Brutus, the weight of tradition is that these individuals were patricians, and they were so regarded by later generations; furthermore it was common for patrician families to have plebeian branches, and entirely plausible that in some cases the patrician lines faded into obscurity, leaving only the plebeian ones in later times.[2]
  2. In answer to this, Mommsen doubts the authenticity of the names assigned to the consulship of 445. Additionally, in this year the plebeians' insistence on being allowed to stand for the consulship resulted in the compromise that created the consular tribunes, who might be either patrician or plebeian; while Livy expressly states that the first plebeians actually elected to this office achieved it in BC 400, the names given for earlier years strongly suggest that plebeians were elected for the years 444 (the year after Genucius is supposed to have been consul) and 422. Thus, assuming that Marcus Genucius was consul in 445, it remains conceivable that he was a plebeian, and that the consular tribunes were created in response to his election.[3]
  3. "[Genucius Cipus], a Roman praetor, to whom an extraordinary prodigy is said to have happened. For, as he was going out of the gates of the city, clad in the paludamentum, horns suddenly grew out of his head, and it was said by the haruspices that if he returned to the city, he would be king: but lest this should happen, he imposed voluntary exile upon himself."[47]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 245 ("Genucia Gens").
  2. Broughton, vol. I, p. 4 (note 1).
  3. Broughton, vol. I, p. 52 (note 1).
  4. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 45, 46 (note 1), 51 (and note 1).
  5. Livy, v. 13.
  6. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 419 ("Augurinus").
  7. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 115–118.
  8. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 804 ("Clepsina").
  9. 1 2 Broughton, vol. I, pp. 195, 198.
  10. Livy, iii. 33.
  11. Dionysius, x. 54, 56, xi. 60.
  12. Zonaras, vii. 18.
  13. Dionysius, xi. 52, 58, 60.
  14. Diodorus Siculus, xii. 31.
  15. Zonaras, vii. 19.
  16. Livy, v. 13, 18.
  17. Diodorus Siculus, xiv. 54, 90.
  18. Livy, vii. 1, 4, 6.
  19. Diodorus Siculus, xv. 90, xvi. 4.
  20. Eutropius, ii. 4.
  21. Orosius, iii. 4.
  22. Lydus, De Magistratibus i. 46.
  23. Livy vii. 3
  24. Diodorus Siculus, xvi. 2.
  25. Livy, vii. 42.
  26. Livy, x. 1.
  27. Diodorus Siculus, xx. 102.
  28. Orosius, iv. 2, 3.
  29. 1 2 Capitoline Fasti.
  30. Donysius xx. 7.
  31. Appian, Bellum Samniticum 9.
  32. Polybius, i. 7.
  33. Livy, Epitome, 15.
  34. Zonaras, viii. 6.
  35. Valerius Maximus, ii. 7. § 15.
  36. Frontinus, Strategemata iv. 1. § 38.
  37. Broughton, vol. I, p. 198.
  38. Livy, ii. 52.
  39. Dionysius, ix. 26.
  40. Livy, ii. 54.
  41. Dionysius, ix. 37 ff, x. 38.
  42. Zonaras, vii. 17.
  43. Plutarch, "Life of Gaius Gracchus", 3.
  44. Livy, xxvii. 4.
  45. Livy, xxxv. 5.
  46. Valerius Maximus, vii. 7. § 6.
  47. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 757 ("Genucius Cipus or Cippus").
  48. Valerius Maximus, v. 6. § 3.
  49. Ovid, Metamorphoses, xv. 565 ff.
  50. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia. xi. 37. s. 45.

Bibliography

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