The gens Atinia was a minor 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 ...

, which came to prominence during the late Republic. No members of this gens ever 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 ...

, although several were

praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vari ...

s in the early second century BC, beginning with Gaius Atinius Labeo 195.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. I, p. 406 ("Atinia Gens").

Origin

The nomen ''Atinius'' belongs to a class of ''gentilicia'' originally derived from surnames ending in '. The geographical and ethnic origin of this gens is not stated in any surviving authority, but if based on the town of Atina—originally a

Volsci The Volsci (, , ) were an Italic tribe, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. At the time they inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the ...

an city in eastern

Latium Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Definition Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil ( Old Latium) on w ...

, subsequently occupied by the Samnites, then a Roman

municipium In ancient Rome, the Latin term (pl. ) referred to a town or city. Etymologically, the was a social contract among ("duty holders"), or citizens of the town. The duties () were a communal obligation assumed by the in exchange for the priv ...

following the

Samnite Wars The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars (343–341 BC, 326–304 BC, and 298–290 BC) were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who lived on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains south of Rome and north of the Lucanian tribe. ...

—it would follow the pattern of numerous other localities that gave rise to Roman gentes. With the exception of Titus Atinius, a figure ascribed to the mythology of the early Republic, all of the Atinii occurring in history belong to the period following the Second Punic War.

Branches and cognomina

The only distinct family of this gens bore the

cognomen 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 ...

''Labeo'', a surname originally referring to someone with thick or prominent lips, one of an abundant class of cognomina derived from the physical characteristics of an individual.

Members

* Titus Atinius, according to legend, 491 BC had visions foretelling catastrophe unless the Great Games were held on a grand scale. The senate heeded his warning, and held the festival, averting divine wrath. * Gaius Atinius Labeo,

tribune of the plebs Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune ( la, tribunus plebis) was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power o ...

in 196 BC, required the senate to consider the claims of the consuls

Lucius Furius Purpureo Lucius Furius Purpureo was a Roman politician and general, becoming consul in the year 196 BC. Lucius Furius was from the '' gens Furia'' patrician family in Rome. Military tribune Purpureo was a military tribune in 210 BC during the Second Punic ...

and

Marcus Claudius Marcellus Marcus Claudius Marcellus (; 270 – 208 BC), five times elected as consul of the Roman Republic, was an important Roman military leader during the Gallic War of 225 BC and the Second Punic War. Marcellus gained the most prestigious award a Roma ...

to a

triumph The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...

separately, and passed a law establishing five

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

. Praetor ''peregrinus'' in 195, he was probably the author of the '' lex Atinia de usucapione''. * Gaius Atinius, one of the

military tribune A military tribune (Latin ''tribunus militum'', "tribune of the soldiers") was an officer of the Roman army who ranked below the legate and above the centurion. Young men of Equestrian rank often served as military tribune as a stepping stone ...

s 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 194 BC, where he served under the command of the

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

Tiberius Sempronius Longus. He might be the same person as Gaius Atinius Labeo, praetor in 188 BC. * Marcus Atinius, killed in Gaul while serving as '' praefectus socium'' under the consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus in 194 BC. * Gaius Atinius Labeo, praetor in 190 BC, received the province of

Sicilia (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. * Gaius Atinius (Labeo), praetor in 188 BC, received

Hispania Ulterior Hispania Ulterior (English: "Further Hispania", or occasionally "Thither Hispania") was a region of Hispania during the Roman Republic, roughly located in Baetica and in the Guadalquivir valley of modern Spain and extending to all of Lusitania ( ...

as his province. * Marcus and Gaius Atinius, two of the main leaders of the

Bacchanalia The Bacchanalia were unofficial, privately funded popular Roman festivals of Bacchus, based on various ecstatic elements of the Greek Dionysia. They were almost certainly associated with Rome's native cult of Liber, and probably arrived in Rome ...

in 186 BC, arrested and brought before the consuls Spurius Postumius Albinus and Quintus Marcius Philippus for confession.Livy, xxxix. 17.

References

Bibliography

* Titus Livius (

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...

), ''

History of Rome The history of Rome includes the history of the city of Rome as well as the civilisation of ancient Rome. Roman history has been influential on the modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church, and Roman law has influenced m ...

''. * Aulus Gellius, ''Noctes Atticae'' (Attic Nights). * ''

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). * '' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography'', William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1854). * George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', vol. VIII, pp. 103–184 (1897). * T. Robert S. Broughton, ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', American Philological Association (1952–1986). {{DEFAULTSORT:Atinia (Gens) Roman gentes

Origin

Branches and cognomina

Members

See also

References

Bibliography