The gens Umbrena was an obscure
plebeian family at
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 BC ...
. Hardly any members of this
gens appear in history, of whom the best known may have been Publius Umbrenus, one of the
Catilinian conspirators in 63 BC.
[''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. III, p. 1281 ("P. Umbrenus").] A few others are known from inscriptions.
Origin
The
nomen ''Umbrenus'' belongs to a class of gentilicia formed using the suffix ', usually derived from other nomina, or
cognomina
A ''cognomen'' (; plural ''cognomina''; from ''con-'' "together with" and ''(g)nomen'' "name") was the third name of a citizen of ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. Initially, it was a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became here ...
ending in '. The surname ''Umbrinus'', in turn, is derived from ''Umber'', an inhabitant of
Umbria
it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman)
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.
Members
* Publius Umbrenus, a ''negotiator'', or money-lender, in
Gaul
Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...
. In 63 BC, he was sent by
Publius Cornelius Lentulus to approach the ambassadors of the
Allobroges
The Allobroges (Gaulish: *''Allobrogis'', 'foreigner, exiled'; grc, Ἀλλοβρίγων, Ἀλλόβριγες) were a Gallic people dwelling in a large territory between the Rhône river and the Alps during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
...
, and enlist their aid in overthrowing the Roman government by promising to assist them against their governor. Instead, the Allobroges reported the conspiracy to
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
.
[Cicero, ''In Catilinam'', iii. 6.]
* Gaius Umbrenus, the father of Titus Umbrenus, named in a first-century BC inscription from Cliternia in
Sabinum.
[.]
* Titus Umbrenus C. f., named in a first-century BC inscription from Cliternia.
* Aulus Umbrenus, the father of Umbrena Polla, a woman buried at
Novaria in
Gallia Narbonensis, in a tomb dating from the first half of the first century.
[.]
* Umbrena A. f. Polla, buried at Novaria in a tomb dating from the first half of the first century, built by her
freedwoman
A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...
, Doxa, as provided in her will.
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 ...
References
{{reflist
Bibliography
*
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
, ''
In Catilinam
The Catilinarian Orations (; also simply the ''Catilinarians'') are a set of speeches to the Roman Senate given in 63 BC by Marcus Tullius Cicero, one of the year's consuls, accusing a senator, Lucius Sergius Catilina (Catiline), of leading a p ...
''.
* Gaius Sallustius Crispus (
Sallust
Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust (; 86 – ), was a Roman historian and politician from an Italian plebeian family. Probably born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines, Sallust became during the 50s BC a partisan ...
), ''Bellum Catilinae'' (The Conspiracy of Catiline).
* ''
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 ...
'',
William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
*
Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th centu ...
''et alii'', ''
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'' (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated ''CIL''), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–present).
*
Charlton T. Lewis
Charlton Thomas Lewis (February 25, 1834 – May 26, 1904) was a United States lawyer, author and lexicographer, who is particularly remembered as a compiler of several Latin–English dictionaries.
Biography
Lewis was born in West Chester, Pe ...
and
Charles Short, ''
A Latin Dictionary
''A Latin Dictionary'' (or ''Harpers' Latin Dictionary'', often referred to as Lewis and Short or L&S) is a popular English-language lexicographical work of the Latin language, published by Harper and Brothers of New York in 1879 and printed si ...
'', Clarendon Press, Oxford (1879).
* George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', vol. VIII, pp. 103–184 (1897).
Roman gentes