Nomen Gentilicium
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The (or simply ) was a hereditary name borne by the peoples of
Roman Italy Roman Italy (called in both the Latin and Italian languages referring to the Italian Peninsula) was the homeland of the ancient Romans and of the Roman empire. According to Roman mythology, Italy was the ancestral home promised by Jupiter to A ...
and later by the citizens of the
Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...
and the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
. It was originally the name of one's (family or clan) by
patrilineal Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritan ...
descent. However, as Rome expanded its frontiers and non-Roman peoples were progressively granted citizenship and concomitant , the latter lost its value in indicating patrilineal ancestry. For men, the was the middle of the ("three names"), after the and before the . For women, the was often the only name used until the late Republic. For example, three members of gens ''Julia'' were Gaius ''Julius'' Caesar and his sisters ''Julia'' Major and ''Julia'' Minor ("Julia the elder" and "Julia the younger").


History

The ''nomen gentilicium'', or "gentile name" designated a Roman citizen as a member of a ''
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 ...
''. A ''gens'', which may be translated as "race", "family", or "clan", constituted an extended Roman family, all of whom shared the same ''nomen'', and claimed descent from a common ancestor. Particularly in the early Republic, the ''gens'' functioned as a state within the state, observing its own sacred rites, and establishing private laws, which were binding on its members, although not on the community as a whole.''
Oxford Classical Dictionary The ''Oxford Classical Dictionary'' (''OCD'') is generally considered "the best one-volume dictionary on antiquity," an encyclopædic work in English consisting of articles relating to classical antiquity and its civilizations. It was first pub ...
'', 2nd Ed. (1970), "Gens."
Although the other peoples of Italy also possessed ''nomina'' (plural of ''nomen''), the distinction between Romans and the non-Roman peoples of Italy disappeared as various communities were granted the Roman franchise, and following the
Social War (91–87 BC) The Social War (from Latin , properly 'war of the allies'), also called the Italian War or the Marsic War, was fought from 91 to 87 BC between the Roman Republic and several of its autonomous allies () in Roman Italy, Italy. The Italian alli ...
, when this was extended to most of Italy. Once this occurred, possession of the ''nomen gentilicium'' identified a man as a Roman citizen. The ''nomen'' was an essential element of Roman nomenclature throughout Roman history, although its usefulness as a distinguishing element declined precipitously following the ''
Constitutio Antoniniana The ''Constitutio Antoniniana'' (Latin for: "Constitution r Edictof Antoninus") (also called the Edict of Caracalla or the Antonine Constitution) was an edict issued in AD 212, by the Roman Emperor Caracalla. It declared that all free men in t ...
'', which effectively granted the ''nomen'' "Aurelius" to vast numbers of newly enfranchised citizens. Countless other "new Romans" acquired the ''nomina'' of important families in this manner during imperial times; in the fourth century ''Aurelius'' was surpassed in number by ''Flavius'', and other names became quite common, including ''Valerius'', ''Claudius'', ''Fabius'', ''Julius'', and ''Junius''. These names no longer had any utility in indicating one's patrilineal ancestry, and became largely perfunctory. They could be changed to indicate rank or status, and even abbreviated, much as ''praenomina'' had been.''
Oxford Classical Dictionary The ''Oxford Classical Dictionary'' (''OCD'') is generally considered "the best one-volume dictionary on antiquity," an encyclopædic work in English consisting of articles relating to classical antiquity and its civilizations. It was first pub ...
'', 2nd Ed. (1970), "Names, Personal."
Benet Salway Richard William Benet Salway is a senior lecturer in ancient history at University College London. His areas of speciality include Greek and Roman epigraphy and onomastics, Roman law, Roman Imperial history and travel and geography in the Graeco ...
, "What's in a Name? A Survey of Roman Onomastic Practice from c. 700 B.C. to A.D. 700", in ''
Journal of Roman Studies The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies (The Roman Society) was founded in 1910 as the sister society to the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. The Society is the leading organisation in the United Kingdom for those interest ...
'', vol. 84, pp. 124–145 (1994).
Both in its original form, identifying an individual as a member of a Roman ''gens'', and in its later form, as an indicator of status, the ''nomen'' continued to be used for several decades after the collapse of Imperial authority in the west. The last datable example of a ''nomen gentilicium'' belongs to a Julia Rogatiana, who died at
Volubilis Volubilis (; ar, وليلي, walīlī; ber, ⵡⵍⵉⵍⵉ, wlili) is a partly excavated Berber-Roman city in Morocco situated near the city of Meknes, and may have been the capital of the kingdom of Mauretania, at least from the time of Kin ...
in AD 655; in the east ''nomina'' such as ''Flavius'' continued until the beginning of the eighth century; Flavius Basilius was Pagarch of Aphrodito in Egypt in 710.


See also

*
Roman naming conventions Over the course of some fourteen centuries, the Romans and other peoples of Italy employed a system of nomenclature that differed from that used by other cultures of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, consisting of a combination of personal and fami ...
*
Agnomen An ''agnomen'' (; plural: ''agnomina''), in the Roman naming convention, was a nickname, just as the ''cognomen'' was initially. However, the ''cognomina'' eventually became family names, so ''agnomina'' were needed to distinguish between simil ...
*
List of Roman nomina This is a list of Roman nomina. The nomen identified all free Roman citizens as members of individual '' gentes'', originally families sharing a single nomen and claiming descent from a common ancestor. Over centuries, a gens could expand from a ...


Notes


References

{{italic title Roman naming conventions