The gens Burbuleia, occasionally written ''Burboleia'', 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 ...

. Members of this gens are mentioned in the time of

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 ...

, but the only one who achieved any distinction in the Roman state was Lucius Burbuleius Optatus, consul in AD 135.

Origin

The nomen ''Burbuleius'' belongs to a large class of gentilicia ending in ''-eius'', typically formed from

Oscan Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian. Oscan was spoken by a number of tribes, including ...

names originally ending in ''-as''. However, as the number of such gentile names grew, ''-eius'' came to be regarded as a regular gentile-forming suffix, and was applied in cases where it had no morphological justification, so it cannot be determined whether the root of ''Burbuleius'' is Oscan, or perhaps a Latin

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 ...

, like ''Burbulus''. There was a family of this name from

Minturnae Minturno is a city and ''comune'' in the southern Lazio, Italy, situated on the north west bank of the Garigliano (known in antiquity as the Liris), with a suburb on the opposite bank about from its mouth, at the point where the Via Appia cross ...

, in southern Latium, which would be consistent with either a Latin or Oscan origin. Minturnae was originally a town of the Ausones, which received a Roman

colony 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' ...

in 296 BC.

Branches and cognomina

The only distinct family of the Burbuleii bore the surname ''Optatus'', desired or welcome. The consul Optatus had the additional surname ''Ligarianus'', which in

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

times would normally have indicated adoption from the Ligarian gens, but by the second century such nomenclature usually indicates descent from a family through the female line. ''Secunda'', borne by Burbuleia, the wife of Cornelius Hilarus, was a personal or individualizing surname, derived from the old

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

praenomen ''Secunda'', originally given to a second daughter.

Members

* Burbuleius, a comic actor who lent his name to Gaius Scribonius Curio, the consul of 76 BC, who despite his excellent elocution was ridiculed for his lack of knowledge, slow thinking, and awkward gesticulations. * Burbuleia Secunda, buried at Rome with her daughter, Cornelia Fortunata, aged twenty-two years, five months, in a tomb built by her husband, Marcus Cornelius Hilarus. * Burboleius C. f., named in an inscription from Rome. * Lucius Burbuleius Optatus, buried at

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 ...

, aged twenty-six years, eight months. * Lucius Burbuleius Optatus, father of the consul Ligarianus. * Lucius Burbuleius L. f. Optatus Ligarianus, consul ''suffectus'' in AD 135, had been

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...

of the public treasury, quaestor,

plebeian aedile ''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 ...

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 ...

, one of the

Sodales Augustales The Sodales or Sacerdotes Augustales (''singular'' Sodalis or Sacerdos Augustalis), or simply Augustales,Tacitus, ''Annales'' 1.54 were an order ('' sodalitas'') of Roman priests originally instituted by Tiberius to attend to the maintenance of t ...

, and was at various times governor of Syria,

Cappadocia Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Re ...

, and

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

. * Lucius Burbuleius Matutinus, one of the

Seviri Augustales The Sodales or Sacerdotes Augustales (''singular'' Sodalis or Sacerdos Augustalis), or simply Augustales,Tacitus, ''Annales'' 1.54 were an order ('' sodalitas'') of Roman priests originally instituted by Tiberius to attend to the maintenance of t ...

at Suasa during the mid-second century..

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 ...

''. *

Marcus Velleius Paterculus Marcus Velleius Paterculus (; c. 19 BC – c. AD 31) was a Roman historian, soldier and senator. His Roman history, written in a highly rhetorical style, covered the period from the end of the Trojan War to AD 30, but is most useful for the per ...

, ''Compendium of Roman History''. *

Valerius Maximus Valerius Maximus () was a 1st-century Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes: ''Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX'' ("Nine books of memorable deeds and sayings", also known as ''De factis dictisque memorabilibus'' ...

, ''Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium'' (Memorable Facts and Sayings). * Gaius Plinius Secundus (

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

), '' Historia Naturalis'' (Natural History). *

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). * René Cagnat ''et alii'', ''

L'Année épigraphique ''L'Année épigraphique'' (''The Epigraphic Year'', standard abbreviation ''AE'') is a French publication on epigraphy (i.e the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing). It was set up by René Cagnat, as holder of the chair of 'Epigraphy an ...

'' (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, pp. 103–184 (1897). * Paul von Rohden, Elimar Klebs, & Hermann Dessau, ''

Prosopographia Imperii Romani The ', abbreviated ''PIR'', is a collective historical work to establish the prosopography of high-profile people from the Roman empire. The time period covered extends from the Battle of Actium in 31 BC to the reign of Diocletian. The final vol ...

'' (The Prosopography of the Roman Empire, abbreviated ''PIR''), Berlin (1898). * Olli Salomies, ''Adoptive and Polyonymous Nomenclature in the Roman Empire'', Societas Scientiarum Fenica, Helsinki (1992). * John C. Traupman, ''The New College Latin & English Dictionary'', Bantam Books, New York (1995). {{DEFAULTSORT:Burbuleia gens Roman gentes

Origin

Branches and cognomina

Members

See also

References

Bibliography