The gens Quirinia 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 ...
. No members of this
gens appear in history, but several are known from inscriptions.
Origin
The
nomen ''Quirinius'' belongs to a class of gentilicia derived from other names ending in ''-inus''. Its root, the surname ''Quirinus'', was an old
Sabine
The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome.
The Sabines di ...
word, apparently derived from ''quiris'', a spear or javelin. As a
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 ...
, it was applied to
Romulus, the legendary founder and first
King of Rome, and it was later applied to other persons, including a family of the
Sulpicia gens
The gens Sulpicia was one of the most ancient patrician families at ancient Rome, and produced a succession of distinguished men, from the foundation of the Republic to the imperial period. The first member of the gens who obtained the consu ...
, and deities, including
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
,
Janus, and the deified
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...
.
Members
* Lucius Quirinius Amerimnus, dedicated a tomb at Rome to Sentia Cleopatra, her husband, Appuleius Protus, and their son, Sentius Protus, dated to the late first or early second century AD.
* Quirinia M. l. Ge, a freedwoman, buried along the
Via Latina
The Via Latina (Latin for "Latin Road") was a Roman road of Italy, running southeast from Rome for about 200 kilometers.
Route
It led from the Porta Latina in the Aurelian walls of Rome to the pass of Mount Algidus; it was important in the ear ...
in Rome, together with Marcus Quirinius Pamphilus, in a tomb dating to the first century BC.
[Pedrazzoli, ''Via Latina'', p. 108.]
* Marcus Quirinius Hermes,
client
Client(s) or The Client may refer to:
* Client (business)
* Client (computing), hardware or software that accesses a remote service on another computer
* Customer or client, a recipient of goods or services in return for monetary or other valuabl ...
of Sextus Vestilius Lycysus and Quirinia Januaria, to whom he dedicated a tomb at
Salernum
Salerno (, , ; nap, label=Neapolitan language, Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the province of Salerno, namesake province, being the second largest city in the ...
in
Campania
(man), it, Campana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demog ...
.
[.]
* Quirinius Hilarus, named in an inscription from Rome.
* Quirinia Januaria, buried at Salernum, aged forty-five, together with Sextus Vestilius Lycysus, in a tomb dedicated by their client, Marcus Quirinius Hermes.
* Marcus Quirinius Pamphilus, buried along the Via Latina, together with Quirinia Ge, in a tomb dating to the first century BC.
* Gaius Quirinius C. f. Proculus, named in an inscription from
Aveia in
Samnium
Samnium ( it, Sannio) is a Latin exonym for a region of Southern Italy anciently inhabited by the Samnites. Their own endonyms were ''Safinim'' for the country (attested in one inscription and one coin legend) and ''Safineis'' for the The ...
.
* Lucius Quirinius Tuscus, named in an inscription from Rome.
[.]
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
*
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, ''Romaike Archaiologia'' (Roman Antiquities).
* ''
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).
* George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', vol. VIII (1897).
* Massimo Pedrazzoli, ''Iscrizioni e Vestigia della Via Latina'' (Inscriptions and Remains of the Via Latina), Rome (1970).
Roman gentes