Fulvia gens

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The gens Fulvia, originally Foulvia, was one of the most illustrious

plebeian families at ancient Rome. Members of this gens first came to prominence during the middle Republic; the first to attain the consulship was Lucius Fulvius Curvus in 322 BC. From that time, the Fulvii were active in the politics of the Roman state, and gained a reputation for excellent military leaders.[1]

Origin

The nomen Fulvius is evidently of Latin origin, and is derived from the cognomen Fulvus, originally designating someone with yellowish or golden-brown hair.[2][3] Cicero reports that the Fulvii originally came to Rome from Tusculum, where some of them remained in his era. According to tradition, they obtained their sacra from Hercules after the completion of his twelve labours.[1] By the latter part of the fourth century BC, they had joined the nobiles through the patronage of the Fabii, who supported the successful candidacy of Lucius Fulvius Curvus for the consulship.[4]

Praenomina

The earliest branch of the Fulvii used the praenomina Lucius, Marcus, and Quintus, which they occasionally supplemented with other names, including Gaius, Gnaeus, and Servius. Lucius disappears early, and was not used by the later Fulvii. The Fulvii Centumali mentioned in history bore Gnaeus and Marcus exclusively, while the Flacci depended on Marcus and Quintus, supplemented by Gnaeus, Servius, and Gaius. Fulvii with other praenomina occur toward the end of the Republic.

Branches and cognomina

The Fulvii of the Republic bore a variety of cognomina, including Bambalio, Centumalus, Curvus, Flaccus, Gillo, Nobilior, Paetinus, and Veratius or Neratius.[1]

Curvus, which means "bent" or "crooked," is the first cognomen of the Fulvii to occur in history, and belongs to a large class of surnames derived from a person's physical characteristics.[5][6] Members of this family subsequently bore the surnames Paetinus and Nobilior, which displaced Curvus.[7]

Paetinus, derived from Paetus, was a common surname originally referring to someone with a slight cast in the eye.[7][8] Pliny the Elder mentions it alongside Strabo, which also indicated a defect of vision,[9] but Horace indicates that Paetus describes a lesser distortion than Strabo, giving as an example a father referring to his son as Paetus, although he was called Strabo, since his eyesight was not that poor.[10] The slight distortion indicated by Paetus was even considered endearing, and it was an epithet of Venus, with much the same meaning as the modern proverb, "love is blind".[11][12][7]

As the cognomen of Curvus was superseded by that of Paetinus, so the latter was in turn superseded by Nobilior, meaning "very noble". This name seems to have been first assumed by the consul of 255 BC, perhaps with the implication that he was more noble than the other Fulvii; his descendants dropped the name of Paetinus.[13][7][14][15]

Centumalus is a cognomen of obscure meaning.[16] From the filiation of Gnaeus Fulvius Maximus Centumalus, the consul of 298 BC, and the first of this surname, it appears probable that he was the brother of Marcus Fulvius Paetinus, the consul of the preceding year, in which case the Centumali were also descended from the Fulvii Curvi.

Flaccus, meaning "flabby", or "flop-eared",[17][18] was the name of a prominent family of the Fulvia gens, which first appears in history around the beginning of the First Punic War. They were presumably descended from the same family as the other Fulvii of the Republic, but the exact manner of the relationship is unclear, unless perhaps they were descended from a younger son of Marcus Fulvius Curvus Paetinus, consul in 305 BC.

The surname Bambalio, belonging to one of the Fulvii of Tusculum, alluded to his tendency to stammer.[19]

To this list, some scholars append Nacca, or Natta, a fuller,

Servius calls him Pinarius Natta, in a passage of uncertain genuineness,[22] but the only known wife of Clodius was Fulvia; thus it has been speculated that her brother could have been Lucius Fulvius Natta, although that surname is otherwise unknown in the Fulvia gens. Ronald Syme argued that it was possible that Natta was a maternal half-brother of Fulvia, from her an earlier marriage of her mother to a Pinarius Natta.[23] Drumann, however, provides reason to suppose that Clodius was married twice, and that his first wife was Pinaria; in which case Natta was not the brother of Fulvia.[24][25]

Members

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

Fulvii Curvi, Paetini, et Nobiliores

Fulvii Centumali

Fulvii Flacci

Fulvii Gillones

  • Quintus Fulvius Gillo, a legate of Scipio Africanus, who sent him to Carthage in BC 203. He was praetor in 200, and obtained Sicily as his province.[65]
  • Gnaeus Fulvius (Q. f.) Gillo, probably the son of Quintus, was praetor in 167, and received the province of Hispania Citerior.[66]
  • Marcus Fulvius Gillo, consul suffectus in AD 76, and governor of Asia from 89 to 90.
  • Quintus Fulvius Gillo Bittius Proculus, consul suffectus in AD 98. His stepdaughter was the second wife of Pliny the Younger.

Others

  • Marcus Fulvius Bambalio, of Tusculum, a man of no account, married Sempronia, daughter of Sempronius Tuditanus. Their daughter,
    Marcus Antonius. Fulvius received the nickname Bambalio on account of a hesitancy in his speech.[19]
  • Fulvia M. f., daughter of Marcus Fulvius Bambalio, married Publius Clodius Pulcher; after his murder in 52 BC, she married Gaius Scribonius Curio. Following his death in the African War, 49 BC, she became the third wife of Marcus Antonius, the triumvir; in 41 she helped to instigate the Perusine War.
  • Publius Fulvius Veratius or Neratius, whom Cicero calls a lectissimus homo, accused Titus Annius Milo in BC 52.[67][68]
  • Aulus Fulvius, a member of the
    second Catilinarian conspiracy, in 63 BC. While he was on his way to Catiline, his father was informed of his son's design, and, overtaking him, ordered that the younger Fulvius be put to death.[69][70][71]
  • Fulvia Pia, the mother of Lucius Septimius Severus, emperor from AD 193 to 211.
  • Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, praetorian prefect under Septimius Severus, to whom he may have been related. Having achieved great wealth and power, he succeeded in having his daughter, Fulvia Plautilla, married to Caracalla, the future emperor. But as Caracalla despised both his bride and his father-in-law, Plautianus anticipated his downfall, and in AD 203 was put to death on the accusation that he was plotting against the emperor and his family.
  • Fulvia Plautilla, the wife of Caracalla, was banished and put to death in AD 212, following the murder of the emperor's brother, Geta.
  • Fulvius Plautius, the brother of Fulvia Plautilla, along with whom he was banished and put to death in AD 212.
  • Fulvius Diogenianus, a former consul, noted for his imprudent freedom of speech during the reign of Macrinus.[72]
  • Fulvius, praefectus urbi in AD 222, was torn to pieces, along with Aurelius Eubulus, by the soldiers and people, in the massacre which followed the death of Elagabalus, and was succeeded in office by the notorious Eutychianus Comazon. He may perhaps be the same person as the consular, Fulvius Diogenianus.[73]
  • Gaius Fulvius Maximus, legate of Dalmatia in the reign of Severus Alexander.
  • Marcus Laelius Fulvius Maximus Aemilianus, consul ordinarius in AD 227.
  • Fulvius Pius, consul in AD 238.
  • Fulvius Aemilianus, consul in AD 244.
  • Fulvius Asprianus, a historian, who detailed at great length the doings of the emperor Carinus.[74]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 188 ("Fulvia Gens").
  2. ^ Chase, p. 130.
  3. ^ New College Latin & English Dictionary, s.v. fulvus.
  4. ^ Klaus Bringmann, A History of the Roman Republic (2007), p. 53.
  5. ^ Chase, p. 110.
  6. ^ New College Latin & English Dictionary, s.v. curvus.
  7. ^ a b c d Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 83 ("Paetinus", "Paetus").
  8. ^ Chase, p. 109.
  9. ^ Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, xi. 37. s. 55.
  10. ^ Horace, Satirae, i. 3. 45.
  11. ^ Ovid, Ars Amatoria, ii. 659.
  12. ^ Priapeia, 36.
  13. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 1205 ("Nobilior").
  14. ^ a b Chase, p. 111.
  15. ^ New College Latin & English Dictionary, s.v. Nobilior.
  16. ^ Chase, p. 115.
  17. ^ New College Latin & English Dictionary, s.v. Flaccus.
  18. ^ Chase, p. 109.
  19. ^ a b Cicero, Philippicae, ii. 36, iii. 6.
  20. ^ Festus, De Verborum Significatu, s.v. natta.
  21. ^ Appuleius, Metamorphoses, ix. p. 636 (ed. Franciscus Oldendorpius).
  22. ^ Servius, Ad Virgilii Aeneidem, viii. 269.
  23. .
  24. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 1143 ("L. Pinarius Natta", No. 2).
  25. ^ Drumann, Geschichte Roms, ii. p. 370.
  26. ^ Livy, viii. 38, ix. 21.
  27. ^ Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, vii. 44.
  28. ^ Livy, ix. 44.
  29. ^ Livy, x. 9.
  30. ^ Livy, x. 23.
  31. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, pp. 1206, 1207 ("Q. Fulvius M. f. M. n. Nobilior", No. 4).
  32. ^ Livy, xxxix. 44, xl. 42.
  33. ^ Cicero, Brutus, 20.
  34. ^ Livy, xl. 41.
  35. ^ Broughton, vol. I, pp. 389, 391 (note 3).
  36. ^ Fasti Triumphales, AE 1889, 70; 1893, 80; 1904, 113, 196; 1930, 60; 1940, 61.
  37. ^ Sallust, Bellum Catilinae, 17.
  38. ^ Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, iv. 16. § 12.
  39. ^ Livy, x. 4, 11, 22, 26, 27, 30.
  40. ^ Fasti Capitolini, AE 1900, 83; 1904, 114; AE 1927, 101; 1940, 59, 60.
  41. ^ Polybius, ii. 11, 12.
  42. ^ Florus, ii. 5.
  43. ^ Eutropius, iii. 4.
  44. ^ Orosius, iv. 13.
  45. ^ Livy, xxiv. 43, 44, xxv. 41, xxvi. 1, 28, xxvii. 1.
  46. ^ Polybius, ix. 6.
  47. ^ Eutropius, iii. 14.
  48. ^ Orosius, iv. 17.
  49. ^ Livy, xxxv. 10, 20, 23, 24.
  50. ^ Livy, xxv. 3, 21, xxvi. 2, 3.
  51. ^ Livy, xxvi. 33, xxvii. 8.
  52. ^ Broughton, vol. I, pp. 239, 240, 241 (note 6), 275, 288.
  53. ^ Livy, xxxi. 4.
  54. ^ Solinus, De Mirabilis Mundi, 7.
  55. ^ Broughton, vol. I, p. 256.
  56. ^ Livy, xxxix. 44.
  57. ^ Livy, xxxviii. 42, xl. 37, 41.
  58. ^ Livy, xl. 30.
  59. ^ a b Livy, Epitome, 56.
  60. ^ Appian, Bella Illyrica, 10.
  61. ^ Cicero, Brutus, 21, 32; De Inventione, i. 43.
  62. ^ Orosius, v. 6
  63. ^ Cicero, Pro Domo Sua, 43.
  64. ^ Napoleon III, Histoire de Jules César, Vol. I, p. 253.
  65. ^ Livy, xxx. 21, xxxi. 4, 6.
  66. ^ Livy, xlv. 16.
  67. ^ Cicero, Pro Flacco, 20.
  68. ^ Asconius Pedianus, In Oratio Ciceronis Pro Milone, 40, 54 (ed. Orelli).
  69. ^ Sallust, Bellum Catilinae, 39.
  70. ^ Cassius Dio, xxxvii. 36.
  71. ^ Valerius Maximus, v. 8. § 5.
  72. ^ Cassius Dio, lxxviii. 36. He may be the same man as the praefectus urbi killed in AD 222.
  73. ^ Cassius Dio, lxxix. 21.
  74. ^ Flavius Vopiscus, "The Life of Carinus", 16.

Bibliography