Gellia gens explained

The gens Gellia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, where they settled after the Second Punic War or earlier. The first of the Gellii to obtain the consulship was Lucius Gellius Poplicola, in 72 BC, but the most famous member of this gens is probably the grammarian Aulus Gellius, who flourished during the second century AD.[1] [2]

Origin

The Gellii were of Samnite origin, and the first of this name mentioned in history was the general Statius Gellius, who was captured together with his army in 305 BC, during the Second Samnite War. Another general, Gellius Egnatius, fought against Rome during the Third Samnite War. The family does not appear to have settled at Rome before the end of the Second Punic War, but probably arrived soon afterward. The earliest Gellius mentioned at Rome is Gnaeus Gellius, the accuser of Lucius Turius, who was defended by Cato the Censor.[1]

Branches and cognomina

During the Republic, the only cognomina used by the Gellii were Canus and Poplicola or Publicola.[1] The former surname means "white" or "light grey", most likely referring to someone with very light hair, or hair that had become preternaturally white; it belongs to a large class of cognomina derived from the physical characteristics of an individual.[3] [4]

Poplicola means "one who courts the people," and is most famous as the surname of Publius Valerius Publicola, one of the first consuls in 509 BC, and his descendants, although the surname occasionally appears in other gentes.[5] This surname may have entered the Gellia gens because Lucius Gellius Poplicola, the consul of 72 BC, was descended from the Valerii, or because he married into the Valerii, or perhaps adopted his son, the consul of 36 BC, from the Valeria gens.[6]

Members

Gellii Poplicolae

See also

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 235 ("Gellia Gens").
  2. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, p. 265.
  3. New College Latin & English Dictionary, s.v. canus.
  4. Chase, pp. 109, 110.
  5. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 600 ("Publicola or Poplicula or Poplicola").
  6. Badian, "The Clever and the Wise", p. 8.
  7. Livy, ix. 44.
  8. Livy, x. 18–29.
  9. Gellius, xiv. 2.
  10. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 235 ("Cn. Gellius").
  11. Cornelius Nepos, Life of Atticus, 10.
  12. Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, xiii. 31, xv. 21.
  13. Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, xiii. 41, 42.
  14. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 236 ("Publicius Gellius").
  15. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 235 ("A. Gellius").
  16. Trebellius Pollio, Life of Tetricus Junior, 25.
  17. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 600 ("Gellius Publicola" No. 1).
  18. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 601 ("Gellius Publicola" No. 2).
  19. Tacitus, Annales, iii. 67.