Acilia gens

The gens Acilia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, that flourished from the middle of the third century BC until at least the fifth century AD, a period of seven hundred years. The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Gaius Acilius Glabrio, who was quaestor in 203 and tribune of the plebs in 197 BC.[1]

Praenomina

The Acilii were particularly fond of the praenomen Manius, which they used more than any other. They also used the names Gaius, Lucius, Caeso, and Marcus.

Branches and cognomina

The three main branches of the Acilii bore the cognomina Aviola, Balbus, and Glabrio.[1]

The Glabriones were the first family to appear in history, and they continued the longest. Members of this family have been identified from the third century BC into the fifth century AD, a span of time that no other Roman family can be proved to have bridged. According to Millar, "[t]he one indubitable case of continuity from the republic to the fourth century is the Acilii Glabriones."[2] They were certainly plebeian, as many of them were tribunes of the plebs.[3] They also had a garden, the Horti Aciliorum, on the Pincian Hill in the 2nd century. A tomb of the Acilii Glabriones was found in Rome in 1888. The surname Glabrio is derived from the adjective glaber, "smooth", and probably referred to someone who was bald.[4] Dondin-Payre suggests that, interpreted as "hairless" or "depilated", Glabrio had the further connotation of "effeminate".[5]

The Acilii Balbi, like the Glabriones, were definitely plebeian. The surname Balbus was quite common at Rome, and originally given to one who stammered. A coin of this family depicts the head of Pallas within a laurel wreath on the obverse, and on the reverse, a quadriga bearing Jupiter and Victoria.[6][4]

The Acilii Aviolae appear at the very end of the Republic, or under the early emperors. There is some confusion between them and the Glabriones, with the consul of BC 33 being identified as Marcus Acilius Glabrio in some writers, and Manius Acilius Aviola in others. Given the antiquity of the Glabriones, it seems likely that one of them was the ancestor of the Aviolae, and might have used both surnames at various points in time. As for the name Aviola, it seems to be a diminutive, presumably of avia, "grandmother".[7][8]

Members

This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.

Acilii Glabriones

Acilii Balbi

  • Manius Acilius L. f. K. n. Balbus, consul in 150 BC.[61][62][63]
  • Manius Acilius M. f. L. n. Balbus, consul in 114 BC.[64][65][66]

Acilii Aviolae

Others

Footnotes

  1. Broughton gives his surname as Caninus or possibly Caninianus, but notes considerable uncertainty as to his identity.
  2. Named as Manius Acilius Aviola in some sources.
  3. This Aviola, a man of consular rank, is said to have come to life again on his funeral pyre, but due to the violence of the flames, he could not be rescued, and burned to death. This must have occurred prior to the death of Tiberius, in AD 37, since Valerius Maximus published his work during that emperor's reign, but none of the Acilii Aviolae are known to have held the consulship this early. This discrepancy would be resolved if the Aviola in question were Gaius Calpurnius Aviola, who had been consul; or if he were the Marcus Acilius Glabrio who was consul in 33 BC, who is referred to as Aviola in some sources.
  4. Or Caninus. Identified by some sources as Manius Acilius Glabrio.

See also

References

  1. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 13 ("Acilia Gens").
  2. Millar, p. 341, note 1.
  3. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 270 ("Glabrio").
  4. Chase, p. 110.
  5. Dondin-Payre, Les Acilii Glabriones, p. 34.
  6. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 455 ("Balbus").
  7. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 434 ("Aviola").
  8. New College Latin & English Dictionary, s. v. avia.
  9. Broughton, vol. I, p. 352.
  10. Livy, xxxii. 29, xxv. 39, xxxv. 14.
  11. Gellius, vii. 14.
  12. Plutarch, "The Life of Cato the Elder", 22, "The Life of Romulus", 21.
  13. Macrobius, i. 5.
  14. Dionysius, iii. 77.
  15. Cicero, De Officiis, iii. 32.
  16. Broughton, vol. I, pp.
  17. Livy, xxx. 40, xxxi. 50, xxxiii. 24–26, 36, xxxv. 10, 24, xxxvi. 1, 2, 14, 28, 35, xxxvii. 6, 57.
  18. Appian, Syriaca, 17–21
  19. Polybius, xx. 9, 10, xxi. 1, 2.
  20. Plutarch, "The Life of Cato the Elder", 12, 13, 14.
  21. Florus, ii. 8. § 10.
  22. Aurelius Victor, De Viris Illustribus, 47, 54.
  23. Frontinus, Strategemata, ii. 4. § 4.
  24. Eutropius, iii. 4.
  25. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 320, 335, 352.
  26. Livy, xl. 34.
  27. Valerius Maximus, ii. 5. § 1.
  28. Obsequens, 76.
  29. Fasti Capitolini.
  30. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 386, 437, 449.
  31. Cicero, In Verrem, Act. Pr. 17, ii. 1, 9.
  32. Pseudo-Asconius, In Ciceronis in Verrem, Act. I, p. 149, Act. II, p. 165 (ed. Orelli).
  33. Broughton, vol. I, p. 517.
  34. Cicero, In Verrem, i. 2, 17, 18, Brutus, 68, Pro Lege Manilia, 2. § 5; 9, Epistulae ad Atticum, xii. 21, Philippicae, ii. 5.
  35. Pseudo-Asconius, In Ciceronis in Verrem, Act. II, v. 29, 63.
  36. Plutarch, "The Life of Sulla", 33, "The Life of Pompeius", 9, 30.
  37. Sallust, Historiae, v. p. 243 (ed. Gerlach).
  38. Cassius Dio, xxxv. 14, 17.
  39. Appian, Bella Mithridatica, 90.
  40. Broughton, vol. II, pp. 142, 143, 154.
  41. Plutarch, "The Life of Sulla", 33, "The Life of Pompeius", 9.
  42. Caesar, De Bello Civili, iii. 15, 16, 39.
  43. Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, vii. 30, 31, xiii. 30–39.
  44. Broughton, vol. II, pp. 280, 285 (note 8), 296, 308, 326.
  45. PIR, vol. I, p. 6.
  46. Broughton, vol. II, p. 414.
  47. PIR, vol. I, p. 5.
  48. CIL VI, 31543 = ILS 5893.
  49. PIR, vol. I, p. 8.
  50. Salomies, Adoptive and Polyonymous Nomenclature.
  51. Juvenal, Satirae, iv. 94–96.
  52. Suetonius, "The Life of Domitian", 10.
  53. Cassius Dio, lxvii. 12, 14.
  54. Juvenal, iv. 94.
  55. PIR, vol. I, p. 7.
  56. Herodian, ii. 3. 4.
  57. PIR, vol. I, p. 9.
  58. Eck, "Zu lateinischen Inschriften aus Caesarea".
  59. Sivan, "A Late Gallic Branch of the Acilii Glabriones".
  60. Cameron, "Anician Myths", p. 150.
  61. Cicero, De Senectute, 5, Epistulae ad Atticum, xii. 5.
  62. Pliny the Elder, vii. 36.
  63. Broughton, vol. I, p. 456.
  64. Obsequens, 97.
  65. Pliny the Elder, ii. 29, 56. s. 57.
  66. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 533, 534 (note 1).
  67. Tacitus, Annales, iii. 41.
  68. Gallivan, "Who Was Acilius?"
  69. Pliny, vii. 52. s. 53.
  70. Valerius Maximus, i. 8. § 12.
  71. PIR, vol. I, pp. 5, 6.
  72. Tacitus, Annales, xii. 64.
  73. Suetonius, "The Life of Claudius", 45.
  74. CIL VI, 41102.
  75. Gallivan, Paul (1978). "Who Was Acilius?". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. 27 (4): 621–625. ISSN 0018-2311.
  76. Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Band I, 1, Sp. 252–253 ("Acilius 15", Elimar Klebs).
  77. Seneca the Younger, Epistulae, cxxii. 10, 12, 13.
  78. Pliny the Elder, xiv. 48.
  79. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, pp. 1010, 1011 ("M. Annaeus Mela").
  80. Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, i. 14, 6.
  81. Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Band I, 1, Sp. 259 ("Acilius 52", Paul von Rohden).
  82. Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139".
  83. Aelius Spartianus, "The Life of Hadrian", 1, 3, 5, 9, 15.
  84. PIR, vol. I, pp. 6, 7.

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Monique Dondin-Payre, Exercise du Pouvoir et Continuité Gentilice: les Acilii Glabriones, Rome: École Française de Rome (1993).
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