The gens Nautia was an old patrician family at ancient Rome. The first of the

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 ...

to obtain the consulship was Spurius Nautius Rutilus in 488 BC, and from then until the Samnite Wars the Nautii regularly filled the highest offices of the Roman Republic. After that time, the Nautii all but disappear from the record, appearing only in a handful of inscriptions, mostly from Rome and Latium.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. II, p. 1145 ("

Nautia Gens The gens Nautia was an old patrician family at ancient Rome. The first of the gens to obtain the consulship was Spurius Nautius Rutilus in 488 BC, and from then until the Samnite Wars the Nautii regularly filled the highest offices of the Roman R ...

"). A few Nautii occur in imperial times, including a number who appear to have been freedmen, and in the provinces.

Origin

Little is known about the origin of the nomen ''Nautius'', or whether it has any connection with ''nauta'', a sailor. The Nautii themselves claimed to be descended from Nautes or Nautius, a companion of Aeneas, who brought the Palladium, a sacred statue of Athena from Troy. His descendants, the Nautii, were said to have protected and maintained the Palladium into Roman times.

Praenomina

All of the Nautii known from the early Republic bore the praenomina ''

Spurius Spurius is a small genus of passalid beetles from Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatema ...

'' or '' Gaius''. The later Nautii used ''

Marcus Marcus, Markus, Márkus or Mărcuș may refer to: * Marcus (name), a masculine given name * Marcus (praenomen), a Roman personal name Places * Marcus, a main belt asteroid, also known as (369088) Marcus 2008 GG44 * Mărcuş, a village in Dobârl� ...

'', ''Gaius'', '' Publius'', '' Lucius'', and ''

Quintus Quintus is a male given name derived from '' Quintus'', a common Latin forename (''praenomen'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Quintus derives from Latin word ''quintus'', meaning "fifth". Quintus is an English masculine given name and ...

'', all of which were very common names throughout Roman history.

Branches and cognomina

All of the Nautii mentioned in history bore the surname ''Rutilus'', which means "reddish", and probably signified that one of the early Nautii had red hair.

Members

Early Nautii

* Spurius Nautius Sp. f. (Sp. n.) Rutilus, a distinguished young patrician at the time of the first secession of the plebs, in 493 BC. During his consulship in 488, Coriolanus marched against Rome at the head of a Volscian army. Nautius and his colleague saw to the city's defenses while various envoys attempted to negotiate with Coriolanus. * Gaius Nautius Sp. f. Sp. n. Rutilus, consul in 475 BC, had the conduct of the war against the Volsci. Unable to force a confrontation, he ravaged their territory. During his second consulship in 458, he fought successfully against the

Sabines The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divid ...

, but when his colleague was defeated by the Aequi, he was asked to nominate Roman dictator, and chose Cincinnatus. * Spurius Nautius Sp. f. Rutilus,

consular tribune A consular tribune was putatively a type of magistrate in the early Roman Republic. According to Roman tradition, colleges of consular tribunes held office throughout the fifth and fourth centuries BC during the so-called "Conflict of the Or ...

in 424 BC. * Spurius Nautius Sp. f. Sp. n. Rutilus, consular tribune in 419, 416, and 404 BC.''Fasti Capitolini''. * Gaius Nautius Sp. f. Sp. n. Rutilus, consul in 411 BC. * Spurius Nautius Sp. f. Sp. n. Rutilus, consul in 316 BC. * Spurius Nautius Rutilus, an officer serving under the consul Lucius Papirius Cursor in 293, was rewarded for his bravery against the

Samnites The Samnites () were an ancient Italic people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy. An Oscan-speaking people, who may have originated as an offshoot of the Sabines, they for ...

at Aquilonia. * Gaius Nautius Rutilus, consul in 287 BC. * Nautius (Rutilus), a military tribune in 256 BC, during the

First Punic War The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. For 23 years, in the longest continuous conflict and grea ...

, opposed the plan of the consul Marcus Atilius Regulus the war to Africa, but Regulus threatened him with death if he did not obey his orders.

Later Nautii

* Gaius Nautius Q. f., a senator in 129 BC. * Marcus Nautius,

quaestor A ( , , ; "investigator") was a public official in Ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times. In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officials who ...

during the late Republic or the early decades of the Empire, according to an inscription at Gabii. * Gaius Nautius Amphio, one of the curators of a monument erected at Rome in AD 9. * Gaius Nautius Nicanor, mentioned in an inscription from Rome. * Gaius Nautius Philoxenus, mentioned in an inscription from Rome. * Publius Nautius Auctus, mentioned in an inscription from Rome. * Gaius Nautius Syntropus, mentioned in an inscription from Cumae concerning those serving under the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, guardians of the

Sibylline Books The ''Sibylline Books'' ( la, Libri Sibyllini) were a collection of oracular utterances, set out in Greek hexameters, that, according to tradition, were purchased from a sibyl by the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, and were consulted at mo ...

, which were said to have come from Cumae during the reign of

Tarquin the Proud Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (died 495 BC) was the legendary seventh and final king of Rome, reigning 25 years until the popular uprising that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic.Livy, ''ab urbe condita libri'', I He is commonly known ...

. * Gaius Nautius C. l. Trupho, a freedman named in an inscription from Tarracina. * Publius Nautius Apollinaris, erected a monument at Rome to Lucius Lusius Petellinus. * Marcus Nautius, named in an inscription from

Lilybaeum Marsala (, local ; la, Lilybaeum) is an Italian town located in the Province of Trapani in the westernmost part of Sicily. Marsala is the most populated town in its province and the fifth in Sicily. The town is famous for the docking of Giuse ...

.. * Lucius Nautius, named in an inscription from Lilybaeum. * Quintus Nautius Secundus, a soldier from Carthage in the second legion at Nicopolis in

Epirus Vetus sq, Epiri rup, Epiru , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Historical region , image_map = Epirus antiquus tabula.jpg , map_alt = , map_caption = Map of ancient Epirus by Heinrich ...

, according to an inscription dating to the middle of the second century..

Footnotes

References

{{reflist, 30em

Bibliography

* Publius Vergilius Maro, ''Aeneid''. * Titus Livius ( Livy), ''

Ab Urbe Condita ''Ab urbe condita'' ( 'from the founding of the City'), or ''anno urbis conditae'' (; 'in the year since the city's founding'), abbreviated as AUC or AVC, expresses a date in years since 753 BC, the traditional founding of Rome. It is an exp ...

'' (History of Rome). *

Dionysius of Halicarnassus Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( grc, Διονύσιος Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἁλικαρνασσεύς, ; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary sty ...

, ''Romaike Archaiologia''. *

Lucius Annaeus Florus Three main sets of works are attributed to Florus (a Roman cognomen): ''Virgilius orator an poeta'', an Epitome of Roman History and a collection of 14 short poems (66 lines in all). As to whether these were composed by the same person, or set of ...

, ''Epitome de T. Livio Bellorum Omnium Annorum DCC'' (Epitome of Livy: All the Wars of Seven Hundred Years). * Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus ( Cassius Dio), ''Roman History''. * Maurus Servius Honoratus, ''Ad Virgilii Aeneidem Commentarii'' (Commentary on Vergil's Aeneid). * '' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849). * Theodor Mommsen ''et alii'', ''

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum The ''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'' (''CIL'') is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. It forms an authoritative source for documenting the surviving epigraphy of classical antiquity. Public and personal inscriptions throw ...

'' (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated ''CIL''), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–present). * René Cagnat ''et alii'', '' L'Année épigraphique'' (The Year in Epigraphy, abbreviated ''AE''), Presses Universitaires de France (1888–present). * George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', vol. VIII (1897). * T. Robert S. Broughton, ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', American Philological Association (1952). * Robert K. Sherk,
The Text of the ''Senatus Consultum De Agro Pergameno''
, in ''Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies'', vol. 7, pp. 361–369 (1966). Roman gentes