The gens Orbicia was an obscure
plebeian
In ancient Rome, the plebeians (also called plebs) were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words " commoners". Both classes were hereditary.
Etymology
The precise origins of ...
family of
ancient Rome. None of its members are known to have held any
magistracies, but several are known from inscriptions. The name may be best remembered from Orbicius, perhaps a Byzantine military strategist of uncertain date, credited with the authorship of a short treatise on the Byzantine army.
[''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. III, p. 41 (''Orbicius'').]
Origin
The
nomen ''Orbicius'' belongs to a class of gentilicia formed from other names, in this instance the
Latin nomen ''
Orbius'', using the suffix ''-icius''. ''Orbius'' is derived from the
cognomen ''Orbus'', a waif or orphan.
Members
* Orbicia Procula, a freedwoman, was the
concubine of the
haruspex Gaius Helvius Agens. She died at the age of thirty, and was buried at
Falerio in Picenum.
* Quintus Orbicius Velageni f., named in an inscription from
Augusta Taurinorum
Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...
in
Gallia Transpadana
Cisalpine Gaul ( la, Gallia Cisalpina, also called ''Gallia Citerior'' or ''Gallia Togata'') was the part of Italy inhabited by Celts (Gauls) during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC.
After its conquest by the Roman Republic in the 200s BC it was con ...
.
* Manius Orbicius M'. l. Salvius, a freedman named in an inscription from Rome.
* Orbicius, the author of a short treatise on the names of the subdivisions and commanders of the army, incorporated into the ''
Etymologicum Magnum'', a twelfth century encyclopedia. Nothing is known of the date of Orbicius, except that he must have lived before the compilation of the ''Etymologicum''.
[''Etymologicum Magnum'', ''s. v. Στρατος''.]
See also
*
List of Roman gentes
References
Bibliography
* ''
Etymologicum Magnum''.
* ''
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).
* D.P. Simpson, ''Cassell's Latin and English Dictionary'', Macmillan Publishing Company, New York (1963).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orbicia (gens)
Roman gentes