The Alfidia gens was a minor
plebeian
In ancient Rome, the plebeians (also called plebs) were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words " commoners". Both classes were hereditary.
Etymology
The precise origins of ...
family of
ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...
. Few members of this
gens
In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; plural: ''gentes'' ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same Roman naming conventions#Nomen, nomen and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a ''stirps'' (p ...
are known from history, of whom the most familiar may be
Alfidia
Alfidia was the mother of Rome's first empress, Livia. She is mistakenly called ''Aufidia'' by Suetonius, and this was assumed to be her name for centuries, but inscriptions found shows that her name was the rare nomen Alfidia.
Biography
It was o ...
the mother of
Livia
Livia Drusilla (30 January 59 BC – 28 September AD 29) was a Roman empress from 27 BC to AD 14 as the wife of Roman emperor, Emperor Augustus Caesar. She was known as Julia Augusta after her formal Adoption in ancient Rome, adoption into the J ...
, the first
Roman empress
This is a list of Roman and Byzantine empresses. A Roman empress was a woman who was the wife of a Roman emperor, the ruler of the Roman Empire.
The Romans had no single term for the position: Latin and Greek titles such as '' augusta'' (Greek ...
. At least one of the Alfidii attained the
consulship
A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...
,
Lucius Alfidius Herennianus
Lucius ( el, Λούκιος ''Loukios''; ett, Luvcie) is a male given name derived from ''Lucius'' (abbreviated ''L.''), one of the small group of common Latin forenames (''praenomina'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Lucius derives from L ...
in AD 171.
Members
* Marcus Alfidius, the maternal grandfather of the empress Livia.
[Zmeskal, ''Adfinitas'', p. 27.]
* Marcus M. f. Alfidius, maternal uncle of Livia.
* Alfidia, the wife of
Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus
Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus (born no later than 93 BC – died 42 BC) was a senator and praetor of the Roman Republic. He was born with the name ''Appius Claudius Pulcher'', into the patrician family of the Claudii Pulchri but adopted by a ...
and mother of Livia.
* Decimus Alfidius Hypsaeus, one of the
aediles
''Aedile'' ( ; la, aedīlis , from , "temple edifice") was an elected office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings () and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enf ...
at Pompei in AD 2.
[Alfidius]
Strachan stemma.
* Alfidius Sabinus,
proconsul
A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority.
In the Roman Republic, military command, or ' ...
of
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
some time in the 20s AD.
[
* Lucius Alfidius Herennianus, consul in AD 171, was the husband of Julia Calvina.][
* Lucius Alfidius Urbanus, a second or third-century ]Hispano-Roman
Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania ...
military officer of equestrian rank
The ''equites'' (; literally "horse-" or "cavalrymen", though sometimes referred to as "knights" in English) constituted the second of the property-based classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the senatorial class. A member of the equestrian o ...
.[
]
See also
* List of Roman gentes
The gens (plural gentes) was a Roman family, of Italic or Etruscan origins, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same '' nomen'' and claimed descent from a common ancestor. It was an important social and legal structure in early ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
* Klaus Zmeskal, ''Adfinitas: Die Verwandtschaften der senatorischen Führungsschicht der römischen Republik von 218–31 v. Chr'' (Adfinity: Kinship of the Senatorial Elite of the Roman State from AD 218 to 231), vol. 1, Karl Stutz Verlag (2009), {{ISBN, 9783888493041.
Roman gentes