The gens Orbilia 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
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 B ...
. None of its members are known to have held any
magistracies. Its most famous representative may have been the grammarian
Lucius Orbilius Pupillus
Lucius Orbilius Pupillus (114 BC – c. 14 BC) was a Latin grammarian of the 1st century BC, who taught at school, first at Benevento and then at Rome, where the poet Horace was one of his pupils. Horace (''Epistles'', ii) criticizes his old scho ...
, who operated a school at Rome, and was the master of
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
.
[''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. III, p. 41 (''Orbilius Pupillus'').]
Origin
The
nomen ''Orbilius'' belongs to a class of gentilicia formed from other names, in this instance the
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 ...
nomen ''
Orbius'', using the diminutive suffix . ''Orbius'' is derived from the
cognomen ''Orbus'', a waif or orphan.
Members
*
Lucius Orbilius Pupillus
Lucius Orbilius Pupillus (114 BC – c. 14 BC) was a Latin grammarian of the 1st century BC, who taught at school, first at Benevento and then at Rome, where the poet Horace was one of his pupils. Horace (''Epistles'', ii) criticizes his old scho ...
, the grammarian, was a native of
Beneventum, opened a school at Rome during the
consulship 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 estab ...
, in 63 BC. He was well-reputed, but obtained the surname ''Plagosus'' from his students due to his frequent floggings. He was fifty when he came to Rome, and lived almost to one hundred. He wrote a treatise which has been lost.
[Suetonius, ''De Illustribus Grammaticis'', 9, 19.][''PIR'', vol. II, p. 437.]
* Orbilius L. f., son of the grammarian, who followed in his father's footsteps and operated a school at Rome.
* Lucius Orbilius L. l. Hilario, a freedman buried at Rome.
NSA 1923, 374
Footnotes
See also
* List of Roman gentes
References
Bibliography
* Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
), '' Epistulae''.
* Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire.
His most important surviving work is a set of biographies ...
, ''De Illustribus Grammaticis'' (The Illustrious Grammarians).
* Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, ''Saturnalia''.
* ''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 p ...
'', William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
* ''Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità'' (News of Excavations from Antiquity, abbreviated ''NSA''), Accademia dei Lincei (1876–present).
* George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', vol. VIII (1897).
* Paul von Rohden
Paul von Rohden (12 December 1862, Barmen – 28 February 1939, Pieterlen) was a German-Swiss schoolteacher and historian known for his research in the field of prosopography. He was the son of theologian Ludwig von Rohden (1815–1889) and the bro ...
, Elimar Klebs
Elimar Klebs (15 October 1852 – 16 May 1918) was a German historian of ancient history. He was the brother of botanist Georg Klebs.
Biography
Klebs was born in Braunsberg (Braniewo), Prussia. He studied in Berlin under Theodor Mommsen a ...
, & Hermann Dessau
Hermann Dessau (6 April 1856, Frankfurt am Main – 12 April 1931, Berlin) was a German ancient historian and epigrapher. He is noted for a key work of textual criticism published in 1889 on the ''Historia Augusta'', which uncovered reasons to ...
, ''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 volum ...
'' (The Prosopography of the Roman Empire, abbreviated ''PIR''), Berlin (1898).
* D.P. Simpson, ''Cassell's Latin and English Dictionary'', Macmillan Publishing Company, New York (1963).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orbilia (gens)
Roman gentes