The gens Abronia was an obscure
plebeian
In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary.
Etymology
The precise origins of the gro ...
family at
ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...
. The only members of this
gens
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 cal ...
mentioned by Roman writers are
Abronius Silo, a
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
poet during the time of
Augustus
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...
, and his son, who was the author of pantomimes.
[Seneca the Elder, ''Suasoriae'', ii. p. 21 (ed. Bipontina).] Epigraphic sources provide a few other instances of this
nomen, but the readings are very uncertain, and it is possible that ''Abronius'' is merely an orthographic variation of ''
Apronius''.
Members
*
Abronius Silo, the Latin poet, was one of the students of the
rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...
ian
Marcus Porcius Latro. He flourished during the later years of the emperor
Augustus
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...
.
* Abronius Silo, son of the poet Abronius Silo, was likewise a poet, but Seneca reports that he wrote for pantomimes, which were considered a form of low culture.
* Abronia Quinta, named in a first-century inscription from
Dume in
Hispania
Hispania was the Ancient Rome, Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two Roman province, provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divide ...
, along with Abronius Reburrus. In both instances, the nomen is uncertain.
[.]
* Abronius Reburrus, named in a first-century inscription from Dume, along with Abronia Quinta. In both instances, the nomen is uncertain.
* Gaius Abronius Car
.. a name of uncertain reading that occurs in two inscriptions from
Vitudurum in
Germania Superior
Germania Superior ("Upper Germania") was an imperial province of the Roman Empire. It comprised an area of today's western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace regions, and southwestern Germany. Important cities were Besançon ('' Vesont ...
, dating from around the reign of
Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; ; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and Ant ...
.
[, .]
See also
*
List of Roman gentes
References
{{reflist
Bibliography
* Lucius Annaeus Seneca (
Seneca the Elder
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder ( ; – c. AD 39), also known as Seneca the Rhetorician, was a Roman writer, born of a wealthy equestrian family of Corduba, Hispania. He wrote a collection of reminiscences about the Roman schools of rhetoric, ...
), ''Suasoriae'' (Rhetorical Exercises).
* ''
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'',
William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
* René Cagnat ''et alii'', ''
L'Année épigraphique'' (The Year in Epigraphy, abbreviated ''AE''), Presses Universitaires de France (1888–present).
Roman gentes