Ceionia gens

The Ceionii were probably of Etruscan origin. Their nomen resembles other Etruscan names, such as Cilnius, and the family does not appear in history before the first century. The historian Aelius Spartianus wrote that they came from Etruria, or perhaps from the town of Faventia, which was itself of Etruscan origin.[1][2]

The praenomina used by the Ceionii were Lucius, Gaius, and Marcus.

The most illustrious family of the Ceionii bore the cognomen Commodus, meaning "friendly, obliging," or "pleasant." The agnomen Verus, meaning "true", was borne by some members of this family. Many other surnames occur, some of which were ordinary cognomina, such as Rufus, meaning "red" or "reddish," or Bassus, "stout".[3][4] However, as with many families of imperial times, many surnames were acquired from other families to whom the Ceionii were related or otherwise politically connected.[1]

Postumus, a surname belonging to the father of the emperor Albinus, is derived from the praenomen Postumus, referring to a youngest child, although a popular false etymology derived it from post humus, "after burial", meaning a child born after his father's death.[5][4] In a letter referred to by the historian Julius Capitolinus, Ceionius Postumus claimed to be a descendant of the ancient patrician house of the Postumii, whose nomen was itself derived from the praenomen Postumus.[6] Ceionius named his son Albinus, supposedly in reference both to the extraordinary whiteness of his skin, and to the noble family of the Postumii Albini; however, several other members of the gens also bore the surname Albinus.[7][3]

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

• List of Roman gentes

• Marcus Velleius Paterculus, Compendium of Roman History.
• Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus (Cassius Dio), Roman History.
• Herodianus, History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus.
• Acts of the Arval Brethren.
• 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, 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).
• René Cagnat et alii, L'Année épigraphique (The Year in Epigraphy, abbreviated AE), Presses Universitaires de France (1888–present).
• George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII (1897).
• Ronald Syme, "Antonine Relatives: Ceionii and Vettuleni", in Athenaeum, vol. xxxv (1957).
• D.P. Simpson, Cassell's Latin and English Dictionary, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York (1963).
• Anthony R. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, B. T. Batsford, London (1966).
• E. Mary Smallwood, Documents Illustrating the Principates of Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian, Cambridge University Press (1966).
• Syme, Ronald, Ammianus and the Historia Augusta, Oxford University Press (1968).
• A. H. M. Jones & J. R. Martindale, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (abbreviated PLRE), Cambridge University Press (1971–1992).
• Paul A. Gallivan, "The Fasti for A.D. 70–96", in Classical Quarterly, vol. 31, pp. 186–220 (1981).
• T. S. M. Mommaerts & D. H. Kelley, "The Anicii of Gaul and Rome", in Fifth-century Gaul: a Crisis of Identity?, John Drinkwater and Hugh Elton, eds., Cambridge University Press, (1992).
• Werner Eck, "Die Fasti consulares der Regungszeit des Antoninus Pius, eine Bestandsaufnahme seit Géza Alföldys Konsulat und Senatorenstand", in Studia Epigraphica in Memoriam Géza Alföldy, Werner Eck, Benedictus Fehér, and Péter Kovács, eds., Bonn (2013).