In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; : gentes ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same nomen gentilicium and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens, sometimes identified by a distinct cognomen, was called a stirps (: stirpes). For example, in the name Marcus Tullius Cicero, Tullius is the nomen gentilicium, which identifies Cicero as a member of the Tullia gens, while the surname Cicero identifies the branch of the gens to which he belonged.
The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the period of the Roman Republic. Much of individuals' social standing depended on the gens to which they belonged. Certain gentes were classified as patrician, others as plebeian; some had both patrician and plebeian branches. The importance of the gens as a social structure declined considerably in imperial times, although the gentilicium continued to define the origins and dynasties of the ancient Romans, including the emperors."Nomen" in Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, pp. 1101–1103.Theodore John Cadoux, "Names, Personal" in Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd ed., pp. 720, 721.
Origins The word gens is sometimes translated as "race", or "nation", meaning a people descended from a common ancestor. It can also be translated as "clan", "kin", or "tribe", although the word tribus has a separate and distinct meaning in Roman culture. A gens could be as small as a single family, or could include hundreds of individuals. According to tradition, in 479 BC the Fabia gens alone were able to field a militia consisting of three hundred and six men of fighting age.Livy, History of Rome, ii. 50; Dionysius, Roman Antiquities, ix. 15. Dionysius says that they were accompanied by clients and friends, making an army of about four thousand, of which the Fabii alone numbered three hundred and six. The concept of the gens was not uniquely Roman, but was shared with communities throughout Italy, including those who spoke Italic languages such as Latin, Oscan, and Umbrian as well as the Etruscans, whose language was unrelated. All of these peoples were eventually absorbed into the sphere of Roman culture.Ernst Fraenkel, "Namenwesen" in Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, vol. 16, half-vol. 32 (1935), cols. 1611–1670.Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, pp. 84, 85.
The oldest gentes were said to have originated before the founding of Rome, which most Greek and Roman writers placed in the mid-eighth century BC,Dionysius, Roman Antiquities, i. 72–75. and some claimed descent from mythological personages as far back as the time of the Trojan War.Livy, History of Rome, i. 3, 7.Dionysius, Roman Antiquities, i. 40, 70. However, the establishment of the gens cannot long predate the adoption of hereditary surnames. The nomen gentilicium, or "gentile name", was its distinguishing feature, for a Roman citizen's nomen indicated his membership in a gens.
The nomen could be derived from any number of things, such as the name of an ancestor, a person's occupation, physical appearance, character, or town of origin, often having been first acquired as cognomina.Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", pp. 115, 116, 132. Because some of these things were fairly common, it was possible for unrelated families to bear the same nomen, and over time to become confused.
Persons could be adopted into a gens and acquire its nomen. A libertus, or "freedman", usually assumed the nomen (and sometimes also the praenomen) of the person who had manumitted him, and a naturalized citizen usually took the name of the patron who granted his citizenship. Freedmen and newly enfranchised citizens were not technically part of the gentes whose names they shared, but within a few generations it often became impossible to distinguish their descendants from the original members. In practice this meant that a gens could acquire new members and even new branches, either by design or by accident.
Praenomina and cognomina Within a gens, individuals could be distinguished by their personal names, or praenomina, by their surnames, or cognomina, or by a combination of these names. For instance, Cicero's father and son were both named Marcus, while his uncle bore the praenomen Lucius, and his brother Quintus. All were part of the same stirps, and bore the surname Cicero, but more distant relatives bore different cognomina, such as Marcus Tullius Decula, or had no surname at all, as Sextus Tullius.Salway, "What's in a Name?", p. 127. Roman women received their fathers' nomina in their feminine form; Cicero's daughter was named Tullia. They might use additional names when necessary to distinguish them from other women belonging to the same gens.Salway, "What's in a Name?", p. 126. In imperial times, surnames came to serve this function for both men and women.
Praenomina within gentes In the time of the Republic, it was customary for each son in a family to receive a different praenomen that could be used to distinguish him from his brothers. Most gentes regularly employed a limited number of praenomina. The most conservative gentes would sometimes limit themselves to three or four praenomina, such as the Julii, who relied almost exclusively on Lucius, Sextus, and Gaius, while others made regular use of six or seven, such as the Cornelii, who regularly used Publius, Gnaeus, Lucius, Servius, Marcus, and Aulus. Different branches of a gens might vary in their names of choice; for instance the Cornelii Cossi used primarily Aulus, Publius, and Gnaeus, while the Cornelii Scipiones used mainly Publius, Lucius, and Gnaeus; the Cornelii Cethegi used several of the traditional names of the Cornelia gens, to which they added Gaius.
There were two main reasons for this limited selection: first, it was traditional to pass down family names from one generation to the next; such names were always preferred. Second, most patrician families limited themselves to a small number of names as a way of distinguishing themselves from the plebeians, who often employed a wider variety of names, including some that were seldom used by the patricians. However, several of the oldest and most noble patrician houses frequently used rare and unusual praenomina. The Furii and Menenii used Agrippa, the Verginii Opiter and Proculus, the Fabii and Quinctii Caeso, and the Fabii were the only patrician family to make regular use of Numerius, while beginning in the late Republic, the Cornelii Sullae repeatedly used Faustus.Salway, "What's in a Name?", p. 130.
Certain families also deliberately avoided particular praenomina. In at least some cases, this was because of traditions concerning disgraced or dishonoured members of the gens bearing a particular name. For example, the Junia gens avoided the praenomina Titus and Tiberius after two members with these names were executed for treason. Similar instances supposedly led the assembly of the Manlia gens to forbid its members from bearing the praenomen Marcus,Livy, History of Rome, vi. 20. and caused the Claudii to avoid Lucius.Suetonius, "The Life of Tiberius", 1.Charles Peter Mason, "Claudia Gens", in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 762. However, these prohibitions were largely traditional, and not strictly enforced, since individuals with most of these names are found at various times.Dionysius mentions a Titus Junius Brutus who as aedile was sent to arrest Coriolanus, Roman Antiquities, vii. 26, 27, 35; Broughton, Magistrates of the Roman Republic, vol. I, p. 17. Cicero, Brutus, 48 mentions a Titus Junius who lived in the time of Sulla, and was tribune of the plebs.A Manlius Acidinus with the filiation M. f. is reported by Livy, History of Rome, xlii. 49, but doubted by Münzer, PW, "Manlius", no. 43 (vol. 27 , cols. 1162, 1163). See Broughton, Magistrates of the Roman Republic, vol. I, pp. 417, 419 (note 1). There were several Lucii Claudii in the late Republic, including one who was praetor in 174 BC (Livy, History of Rome, xli. 21), a senator in 73 BC, and another, known to Cicero, who was Rex Sacrorum at some time before 60 BC (Cicero, De Haruspicum Responsis, 12; De Domo Sua, 127. See Broughton, Magistrates of the Roman Republic, vol. II, pp. 115, 187.).
Cognomina and stirpes Because there were relatively few praenomina in widespread use, and the same praenomina tended to be used repeatedly within each gens, cognomina were also used to distinguish between individuals and branches of a gens at an early time. Thus, the Valerii of the early Republic included three brothers named Publius Valerius Poplicola, Marcus Valerius Volusus, and Manius Valerius Maximus. These surnames sometimes became hereditary, and were passed down within a stirps, as with the Tullii Cicerones, but new cognomina were frequently added to or replaced older ones, and cognomina might be shared or revived at a later time by different branches of a gens. In imperial times, cognomina virtually replaced praenomina, with brothers typically receiving distinctive surnames, and frequently sharing the same praenomen.
Women's names A rigid adherence to tradition and legal formality kept praenomina in use among Roman men for centuries after they had lost most of their value for distinguishing between individuals. Women's names were less constrained, and became more flexible at an early time. A Roman woman inherited her nomen gentilicium in its feminine form. Cicero's daughter was named Tullia, although he frequently called her by the diminutive Tulliola. Because she had no sisters, and because nomina were normally inherited from one's father, this was sufficient to distinguish her from every other member of her immediate family, both before and after she married. If there were multiple sisters in a family, they could be given distinguishing praenomina, but these were sometimes placed after the gentilicium as though they were cognomina. In the time of the Republic, women were rarely referred to by family surnames. In imperial times, it became common for both men and women to have personal cognomina, or receive surnames from their ancestors on either side of their families.Salway, "What's in a Name?", p. 128.
Social function Members of individual gentes carried out their own religious rites, and some cults were traditionally associated with specific gentes. Reportedly gentiles were responsible for the adoption and guardianship of other members. If a member of a gens died intestate and without immediate family, his property was distributed to the rest of the gens.Piero Treves, "Gens" in Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd ed., p. 462. Roman writers and early modern scholars believed that a gens could establish its own private laws, which were theoretically binding on all of its members. However, no public enactment is recorded as having been passed by the assembly of a gens, and besides sharing common traditions, no means by which a gens could be led or governed is mentioned in any Roman source.Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, pp. 245, 246. Thus, as a group, the gentes had considerable influence on the development of Roman law and religious practices, but comparatively little influence on the political and constitutional history of Rome.
Patrician and plebeian gentes