The gens Gallia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Several members of this gens are mentioned during the first century BC.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, pp. 221, 222 ("Gallius").

Origin The nomen Gallius might be derived from Gallus, a common surname that can refer either to a cock or someone of Gallic origin.

Praenomina Among the Gallii we find the praenomina Quintus, Marcus, and Gaius, all of which were common throughout Roman history.

Branches and cognomina The Gallii do not appear to have been divided into distinct families, and none of those known during the late Republic bore any surnames.

Members

Quintus Gallius, praetor urbanus in 63 BC, had been accused of ambitus by Marcus Calidius the previous year, and was successfully defended by Cicero. As praetor he presided over the trial of Gaius Cornelius, one of Catiline's conspirators.Cicero, Brutus, 80.Quintus Cicero, De Petitione Consulatus, 5.Asconius, In Toga Candida, p. 88 (ed. Orelli), In Cornelio, p. 62 (ed. Orelli).Valerius Maximus, viii. 10. § 3. Marcus Gallius, the adoptive father of Axianus, and possibly a brother of Quintus Gallius, the praetor urbanus.Shackleton Bailey, Two Studies in Roman Nomenclature, p. 11. Marcus Gallius M. f. Axianus, adopted from the Axia gens.Cicero, Ad Atticum. Marcus Gallius Q. f., praetor in an uncertain year, and a supporter of Marcus Antonius. He adopted the future emperor Tiberius in his youth, and left him a considerable legacy.Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, x. 15, xi. 20, Philippicae, xiii. 12.Suetonius, "Life of Tiberius", 6. Quintus Gallius Q. f., officer under the proconsul Quintus Marcius Philippus in 47–46 BC. Praetor in 43 BC, he was arrested and put to death by Octavian on the apparently false suspicion of intending to murder him, although Octavian later claimed that Gallius had merely been commended into the care of his brother, and disappeared.Suetonius, "Life of Augustus", 27.Appian, Bellum Civile, iii. 95. Gallia Polla, the proprietor of a first-century ousia in Egypt that later passed to the imperial freedman Marcus Antonius Pallas, and after him to Lucius Septimius Severus, (an ancestor of the emperor). She may have been related to Tiberius' adoptive father.Lucia Rossi, "The Identification of Lucius Septimius", pp. 127–147.Komitet Nauk o Kulturze Antycznej, Meander, vol. 39, p. 26.Y. Broux, SB 10 10527 (TM 14312) and the sale of ousiac land in Egypt, p. 8. Gaius Gallius, a person mentioned by Valerius Maximus as having been scourged to death by Sempronius Musca, who caught him in the act of adultery.Valerius Maximus, vi. 1. § 13. Gaius Gallius C. f. Lupercus, minted copper sestertii in 15 BC.Zograf, Ancient Coins of the Northern Black Sea Littoral, p. 402. Gaius Gallius, the father of Gallia Tertulla.Nuorluoto, "Roman Female Cognomina", p. 308. Gallia C. f. Tertulla, named in an inscription found at Ravenna, dating to the reigns of Augustus or Tiberius. Quintus Gallius Pulcher, archiereus of the Koinon in Ankyra in 35 AD. He probably came from a family that had been granted citizenship by Quintus Gallius the quaestor of Cicily.Derks, Ethnic Constructs in Antiquity, p. 135.

See also List of Roman gentes

Notes

References

Bibliography

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Brutus, Epistulae ad Atticum, Epistulae ad Familiares, Philippicae. Quintus Tullius Cicero, De Petitione Consulatus (attributed). Quintus Asconius Pedianus, Commentarius in Oratio Ciceronis In Toga Candida, Commentarius in Oratio Ciceronis In Cornelio. Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium (Memorable Facts and Sayings). Appianus Alexandrinus (Appian), Bellum Civile (The Civil War). Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (Suetonius), De Vita Caesarum (Lives of the Caesars, or The Twelve Caesars). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).

Zograf, Aleksandr (1977). The Ancient Coins of the Northern Black Sea Littoral (British Archaeological Reports), .