Antonia gens

The gens Antonia was a Roman family of great antiquity, with both patrician and plebeian branches. The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Titus Antonius Merenda, one of the second group of Decemviri called, in 450 BC, to help draft what became the Law of the Twelve Tables. The most prominent member of the gens was Marcus Antonius.[1]

Antonia Minor, one of the most well known members of the gens.

Origin

Marcus Antonius, the triumvir, claimed that his gens was descended from Anton, a son of Heracles.[2][3] According to ancient traditions the Antonii were Heracleidae and because of that Marcus Antonius harnessed lions to his chariot to commemorate his descent from Heracles, and many of his coins bore a lion for the same reason.[4][5][6][1]

Praenomina

The patrician Antonii used the praenomina Titus and Quintus. Titus does not appear to have been used by the plebeian Antonii, who instead used Quintus, Marcus, Lucius, and Gaius. There is also a few instance of Aulus, while Marcus Antonius the triumvir named one of his sons Iulus. This name, also borne by a later descendant of the triumvir, may have been an ancient praenomen revived by the family, but it was probably also intended to call to mind the connections of his family with the illustrious gens Julia.

Branches and cognomina

The patrician Antonii bear the cognomen Merenda; the plebeian Antonii bear no surname under the Republic, with the exception of Quintus Antonius, propraetor in Sardinia in the time of Sulla, who is called Balbus on coins.[1]

Members

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

See also

References

Citations

  1. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 210 ("Antonia Gens").
  2. Plutarch, "The Life of Marcus Antonius", 36.4
  3. Plutarch, "The Life of Marcus Antonius", 60.3
  4. Plutarch, "The Life of Marcus Antonius", 4.1
  5. Pliny the Elder, viii. 16. s. 21; comp. Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, x. 13.
  6. Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum Veterum, vi. pp. 38, 44.
  7. Dionysius, x. 58, xi. 23, 33.
  8. Livy, iii. 35, 38, 41, 42.
  9. Fasti Capitolini AE 1900, 83; 1904, 114.
  10. Livy, iv. 42.
  11. Livy, viii. 17.
  12. Valerius Maximus, ii. 9. § 2.
  13. Livy, xxxvii. 32.
  14. Livy, xlv. 4.
  15. Livy, xlv. 21, 40.
  16. Florus, 86.
  17. Plutarch, "The Life of Pompeius", 24.
  18. Valerius Maximus, iv. 2. § 6.
  19. Cicero, Philippicae, ii. 38.
  20. Plutarch], "The Life of Marcus Antonius", 9.
  21. Cassius Dio, xliv. 53.
  22. Appian, Bellum Civile, v. 93.
  23. Suetonius, "The Life of Nero", 5.
  24. Plutarch, "The Life of Marcus Antonius", 87.
  25. Tacitus, Annales, iv. 44.
  26. Guido Bastianini, "Lista dei prefetti d'Egitto dal 30a al 299p", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 17 (1975), p. 269
  27. Seneca the Elder, Suasoriae, 2. p. 19 (ed. Bipontinus).
  28. Paul Gallivan, "The Fasti for the Reign of Claudius", Classical Quarterly, 28 (1978), pp. 408, 424
  29. Suetonius, "The Life of Claudius", 27, "The Life of Nero", 35.
  30. Tacitus, Annales, xii. 2, xiii. 23, xv. 53.
  31. Cassius Dio, lx. 5.
  32. Tacitus, Historiae, i. 20.
  33. JEckhel, Doctrina Numorum Veterum, ii. p. 404.
  34. Tacitus, Historiae, iv. 45.
  35. Tacitus, Historiae, i. 87, ii. 12.
  36. Pliny the Elder, xxv. 5.
  37. Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, i. 5. § 43.
  38. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 670 ("Antonius Rufus").
  39. Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, iv. 3, 18, v. 10.
  40. Tacitus, Historiae, i. 20.
  41. Cooley, Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy, p. 467.
  42. Cooley, Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy, p. 470.
  43. Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand, p. 213.
  44. Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, iv. 1, ix. 15, xv. 1, xviii. 5, xix. 9, xx. 9.

Bibliography

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