The gens Raecia, also spelled Racia, 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 ...
. Members of this
gens are first mentioned at the time of the
Second Punic War. Marcus Raecius was
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 ...
in 170 BC. However, after this the family fell into obscurity until
imperial times.
Origin
The
nomen ''Raecius'' appears to be of
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 ...
origin, indicating that the Raecii were probably descended from one of the Oscan-speaking peoples of central and southern Italy, such as the
Sabines or the
Samnites. The nomen ''
Racilia'' may have been derived from ''Raecia'', using the common diminutive suffix '.
Branches and cognomina
None of the Raecii who appear in history during the
Republic bore any
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 ...
, but the Raecii of imperial times used a variety of common surnames. ''Taurus'', a bull, ''Gallus'', a cockerel, and ''Leo'', a lion, belong to a common type of cognomina derived from the names of familiar objects and animals. ''Rufus'', red, was usually bestowed on someone with red hair, while ''Constans'' indicated someone steadfast or faithful.
Members
* Marcus Raecius, one of two ambassadors sent to
Massilia
Massalia (Greek: Μασσαλία; Latin: Massilia; modern Marseille) was an ancient Greek colony founded ca. 600 BC on the Mediterranean coast of present-day France, east of the river Rhône, by Ionian Greek settlers from Phocaea, in Western An ...
in 208 BC, in order to gather intelligence concerning the approach of
Hasdrubal Hasdrubal ( grc-gre, Ἀσδρούβας, ''Hasdroúbas'') is the Latinized form of the Carthaginian name ʿAzrubaʿal ( xpu, 𐤏𐤆𐤓𐤁𐤏𐤋 , , "Help of Baal").
It may refer to:
* Hasdrubal I of Carthage was the Magonid king of Ancien ...
, who invaded Italy the following spring.
* Marcus Raecius,
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 ...
in 170 BC, during the
Third Macedonian War
The Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC) was a war fought between the Roman Republic and King Perseus of Macedon. In 179 BC, King Philip V of Macedon died and was succeeded by his ambitious son Perseus. He was anti-Roman and stirred anti-Roman ...
, levied soldiers along the Adriatic provinces, and required all of the Roman Senate, senators to return to Rome in anticipation of the Elections in the Roman Republic, comitia.
* Marcus Raecius Taurus, one of the Arval Brethren in the time of Nero.
[''PIR'', vol. III, p. 124.]
* Marcus Raecius Gallus, one of two persons who might be identified with Gallus, consul ''suffectus'' in AD 84. Ronald Syme proposed this identification in 1969, but later concluded that the consul was more likely to be identified with Publius Glitius Gallus.
* Gaius Raecius Rufus, a senator in AD 173, mentioned in an inscription from Rab, Arba in Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia as the patronage in ancient Rome, patron of Gaius Raecius Leo.
[.]
* Gaius Raecius Leo, a client of the senator Gaius Raecius Rufus.
* Racius or Raecius Constans, governor of Corsica and Sardinia, Sardinia during the reign of Septimius Severus, was put to death on the emperor's orders, as one of those who had allegedly overturned statues of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, the praetorian prefect.
[Cassius Dio, lxxv. 16.]
See also
* List of Roman gentes
Footnotes
References
Bibliography
* Titus Livius (Livy), ''Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Livy), History of Rome''.
* Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus (Cassius Dio), ''Roman History''.
* ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', William Smith (lexicographer), William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
* Theodor Mommsen ''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, pp. 103–184 (1897).
* Paul von Rohden, Elimar Klebs, & Hermann Dessau, ''Prosopographia Imperii Romani'' (The Prosopography of the Roman Empire, abbreviated ''PIR''), Berlin (1898).
* Thomas Robert Shannon Broughton, T. Robert S. Broughton, ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', American Philological Association (1952–1986).
* Ronald Syme, "Pliny the Procurator", in ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', vol. LXXIII, pp. 201–236 (1969); "P. Calvisius Ruso: One Person or Two?", in ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'', vol. 56, pp. 173–192 (1984).
* Paul A. Gallivan, "The ''Fasti'' for A.D. 70–96", in ''Classical Quarterly'', vol. 31, pp. 186–220 (1981).
* John C. Traupman, ''The New College Latin & English Dictionary'', Bantam Books, New York (1995).
{{Refend
Roman gentes