Suetonia gens

The gens Suetonia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned in the reign of Claudius, under whom the general Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, consul in AD 66, won his first military victories; but the family is perhaps best known for the historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, who flourished toward the beginning of the second century.

Origin

The origin of the Suetonii is nowhere mentioned in ancient writers, but several of them came from Pisaurum in Umbria, suggesting that this may be their original home.[1]

Praenomina

The main praenomina of the Suetonii were Gaius and Lucius, the two most common names at all periods of Roman history. The only other names found among the inscriptions of this family are Sextus and Titus.

Branches and cognomina

The only distinct family of the Suetonii bore the cognomen Paulinus or Paullinus, derived from the common surname Paullus, meaning "small", which could be bestowed on account of a person's stature, or upon the youngest child in a family.[2] It is not known whether or how the historian Suetonius was related to this family.[1]

Members

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

Undated Suetonii

  • Lucius Suetonius Crescens, dedicated a tomb at Ateste in Venetia and Histria for his wife Suetonia Logas.[38]
  • Gaius Suetonius Diodorus, buried at Rome, with a monument dedicated by his friend, Postumius Fortunatus, and the freedwoman Primitia, one of his clients.[39]
  • Suetonius Fidus, named in a sepulchral inscription from Theveste in Africa Proconsularis.[40]
  • Gaius Suetonius Januarius, prefect of the Cohors I Chalcidenorum, one of the Roman Auxilia stationed in Numidia, dedicated a tomb for his wife, Papiria Irena, at the present site of Bir Um Ali.[41]
  • Suetonia L. l. Logas, buried at Ateste, with a monument from her husband, Lucius Suetonius Crescens.[38]
  • Sextus Suetonius Sex. l. Philodamus, dedicated a tomb at Pisae in Etruria to the freedwoman Suetonia Zophrona, perhaps his wife.[42]
  • Gaius Suetonius Rogatus, buried at Theveste, aged eighty, with a monument from his children.[43]
  • Suetonia Sex. l. Zophrona, a freedwoman buried at Pisae, in a tomb dedicated by the freedman Sextus Suetonius Philodamus, perhaps her husband.[42]

Notes

  1. Paulinus may have been one of the suffecti in 42 or 43, but the details are unknown. He would almost certainly not have been appointed governor of Britain unless he were of consular rank.[4] He was consul ordinarius in 66, probably holding the office from January to June, as a reward for his long and faithful service.[5]
  2. "Master of Letters", in this instance a secretary in charge of Hadrian's correspondence.[22]
  3. April 5. The Nones were the ninth day before the Ides, counting inclusively, and the Ides of April fell on the 13th.

See also

References

  1. Birley, "Suetonius Paullinus".
  2. New College Latin and English Dictionary, s.v. paullus.
  3. CIL VI, 37522.
  4. Gallivan, "The Fasti for the Reign of Claudius", pp. 418 ff, 426.
  5. Gallivan, "Reign of Nero", pp. 292, 295, 310.
  6. Cassius Dio, lx. 9, lxii. 1–12.
  7. Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, v. 1.
  8. Tacitus, Annales, xiv. 39–47, xvi. 14; Agricola, 5, 14–16; Historiae, i. 87, 90, ii. 23–26, 31–41, 44, 60.
  9. Suetonius, "The Life of Nero", 39.
  10. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, pp. 145, 146 ("Paulinus, C. Suetonius").
  11. PW, Suetonius 3.
  12. PIR, S. 694.
  13. CIL XI, 395, CIL VI, 8639.
  14. AE 1925, 11, AE 1946, 124, AE 2002, 512.
  15. RIB, i. 2368
  16. CIL IX, 4869.
  17. CIL IX, 4765.
  18. CIL VI, 38943.
  19. Suetonius, "The Life of Otho", 10.
  20. PW, Suetonius 1.
  21. PIR, S. 691.
  22. Orelli, Inscriptionum Latinarum, 2352.
  23. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, pp. 930, 931 ("C. Suetonius Tranquillus").
  24. AE 1953, 73.
  25. PW, Suetonius 4.
  26. PIR, S. 695.
  27. CIL XI, 3614.
  28. CIL VI, 2379.
  29. AE 2002, 433.
  30. CIL VI, 2380.
  31. AE 2003, 252, AE 2003, 253.
  32. CIL VI, 3328.
  33. CIL VI, 1056.
  34. Flavius Vopiscus, "The Life of Tacitus", 11.
  35. PIR, S. 693.
  36. PW, Suetonius 2.
  37. CIL III, 6427.
  38. AE 1992, 736.
  39. CIL VI, 26925.
  40. ILAlg, i. 3374.
  41. CIL VIII, 2090.
  42. CIL XI, 1492.
  43. ILAlg, i. 3375.

Bibliography

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