Origin
The nomen ''Ragonius'' belongs to a class of Nomen gentilicium, gentilicia formed using the suffix , typically of plebeian origin, and frequently of Oscan language, Oscan ancestry. Such names were originally formed from cognomen, cognomina ending in ''-o'', but once they became common, came to be regarded as a regular gentile-forming suffix, and was used in cases where it had no morphological justification.Chase, pp. 118, 119. The origin of ''Ragonius'' is obscure, but Chase suggests a possible etymological relationship to ''raga'', a variation of ''braca'', a harness, or, in the plural, breeches. The occurrence of the Etruscan language, Etruscan gentilicia ''Urinatius'' and ''Larcius'', and the Latin ''Tuscenius'' in the nomenclature of two of the earlier Ragonii might point to an Etruscan origin, but given the period at which they appear, in all probability they refer to ancestors of this family in the female line.Branches and cognomina
The Ragonii used a variety of common surnames, including ''Celer'', swift, ''Celsus'', tall, ''Clarus'', bright or famous, and ''Priscus'', elder. The only distinct family of this gens passed down the surnames ''Quintianus'' and ''Venustus'' for several generations; ''Quintianus'' was probably an old Roman naming conventions#Agnomen, agnomen, originally belonging to someone who was adopted out of the Quinctia gens, gens Quinctia, while ''Venustus'', which entered the family through the female line, was applied to someone charming or attractive.Members
* Ragonius Celer, the strategos, epistrategus, or military commander, serving under Titus Vitrasius Pollio, governor of Egypt (Roman province), Egypt in AD 31 and 32. * Lucius Ragonius L. f. Urinatius Larcius Quintianus, held a number of important positions during his career, serving at various times as quaestor, praetor, legatus, legate of the Legio XIV Gemina, fourteenth legion, and proconsul of Africa (Roman province), Africa; he was Roman consul, consul in an uncertain year early in the reign of Commodus.Loriot, "Les consuls ordinaires", p. 258. * Ragonius Celsus, said by Spartianus to have governed the Gauls during the reign of Septimius Severus. A letter mentioned by Spartianus and addressed to the emperor is probably fictitious. * Numerius Ragonius Priscus, a soldier in the fifth cohort of the vigiles at the beginning of the third century, serving in the century of Marcus Mummius Verinus. * Lucius Ragonius L. f. L. n. Urinatius Tuscenius Quintianus, one of the flamen, flamines, and consul in an uncertain year, ''circa'' AD 210. He married Flavia Venusta. * Lucius Ragonius Venustus, Lucius Ragonius L. f. L. n. Venustus, consul in AD 240. He was probably the father or grandfather of Lucius Ragonius Quintianus, the consul of AD 289. * Ragonius Clarus, governor of Illyricum (Roman province), Illyricum during the reign of Valerian (emperor), Valerian, whose letter to the emperor, mentioned by Trebellius Pollio, is likely an invention of the author. * Lucius Ragonius (L. f. L. n.) Quintianus, consul in AD 289, during the reign of Diocletian. * Ragonius Vincentius Celsus, a Roman Senate, senator mentioned in an inscription dating to AD 389, was praefectus annonae according to inscriptions found at Ostia Antica, Ostia. * Lucius Ragonius Venustus, performed a ''taurobolium'', the sacrifice of a bull in honour of the Cybele, Magna Mater, in AD 390.See also
* List of Roman gentesReferences
{{reflistBibliography
* Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus (Cassius Dio), ''Roman History''. * Aelius Lampridius, Aelius Spartianus, Flavius Vopiscus, Julius Capitolinus, Trebellius Pollio, and Vulcatius Gallicanus, ''Historia Augusta'' (Augustan 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). * Paul von Rohden, Elimar Klebs, & Hermann Dessau, ''Prosopographia Imperii Romani'' (The Prosopography of the Roman Empire, abbreviated ''PIR''), Berlin (1898). * Xavier Loriot