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Octavii Rufi
The gens Octavia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, which was raised to patrician (ancient Rome), patrician status by Julius Caesar, Caesar during the first century BC. The first member of the gens to achieve prominence was Gnaeus Octavius Rufus, quaestor about 230 BC. Over the following two centuries, the Octavii held many of the highest offices of the state; but the most celebrated of the family was Augustus, Gaius Octavius, the grandnephew and adopted son of Caesar, who was proclaimed ''Augustus'' by the Roman Senate, senate in 27 BC.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. III, pp. 5, 6 ("s:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Octavia gens, Octavia Gens"). Origin The Octavii originally came from the Volscian town of Velletri, Velitrae, in the Alban Hills. The historian Suetonius writes, There are many indications that the Octavian family was in days of old a distinguished one at Velitrae; for not only was a street in the most frequent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plebeian
In ancient Rome, the plebeians or 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 the group and the term are unclear, but may be related to the Greek, ''plēthos'', meaning masses. In Latin, the word is a singular collective noun, and its genitive is . Plebeians were not a monolithic social class. In ancient Rome In the annalistic tradition of Livy and Dionysius, the distinction between patricians and plebeians was as old as Rome itself, instituted by Romulus' appointment of the first hundred senators, whose descendants became the patriciate. Modern hypotheses date the distinction "anywhere from the regal period to the late fifth century" BC. The 19th-century historian Barthold Georg Niebuhr believed plebeians were possibly foreigners immigrating from other parts of Italy. This hypothesis, that plebeians were racial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
