The gens Calavia was a distinguished

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

n family of Roman times. Several members of this

gens In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; plural: ''gentes'' ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same nomen and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a ''stirps'' (plural: ''stirpes''). The ''gen ...

were involved in the events of the Samnite Wars and during the

Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...

. The most famous of its members was undoubtedly Pacuvius Calavius, the chief magistrate of

Capua Capua ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, situated north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. History Ancient era The name of Capua comes from the Etrusc ...

during Hannibal's invasion of Italy, and son-in-law of Publius Claudius Pulcher. When Calavius feared that the Capuans would massacre their own senators and surrender the city to Hannibal, he shut them in the senate-house until he convinced the citizens to place their trust in their leaders once more. When Hannibal nevertheless entered Capua following the

Battle of Cannae The Battle of Cannae () was a key engagement of the Second Punic War between the Roman Republic and Carthage, fought on 2 August 216 BC near the ancient village of Cannae in Apulia, southeast Italy. The Carthaginians and their allies, led by ...

in 216 BC, Calavius restrained his son from a rash attempt on the general's life. In revenge for the subsequent ill treatment of Campania by Rome, a family of this name joined with other Campanians in setting fire to various parts of Rome in 211 BC.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. I, pp. 560, 561 ("Calavius").

Origin

The Calavii were Campanians, and their native language was

Oscan Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian. Oscan was spoken by a number of tribes, including ...

. The early members of the gens all bore Oscan praenomina, and were prominent in the events of southern Italy during the third and fourth centuries BC.Chase, pp. 138–140.

Praenomina

The Calavii are known to have used the Oscan praenomina ''Ovius, Ofilius, Novius'', and ''Pacuvius''. It is not certain whether ''Perolla'', a name assigned to the son of Pacuvius Calavius, was also an Oscan praenomen.

Branches and cognomina

None of the Calavii during the Republic bore any surname. In imperial times we find the

cognomen A ''cognomen'' (; plural ''cognomina''; from ''con-'' "together with" and ''(g)nomen'' "name") was the third name of a citizen of ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. Initially, it was a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became her ...

''Sabinus'', referring to one of the

Sabines The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines di ...

, or their culture. The

Samnites The Samnites () were an ancient Italic people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy. An Oscan-speaking people, who may have originated as an offshoot of the Sabines, they ...

, in whose history the Calavii occur, claimed to be descendants of the Sabines, and the use of ''Sabinus'' by the later Calavii probably alluded to this tradition.

Members of the gens

* Ovius Calavius, father of Ofilius Calavius. * Ofilius Calavius Ovi. f., a man of great distinction at Capua, urged his countrymen not to exult too greatly over the Samnite victory over the Romans at the Caudine Forks, in 321 BC. * Ovius Calavius Ofili f. Ovi n., with his brother, Novius, was one of the leaders of a conspiracy to launch an insurgency against Rome from Capua in 314 BC. * Novius Calavius Ofili f. Ovi n., with his brother, one of the leaders of the conspiracy at Capua in 314 BC. * Pacuvius Calavius, the chief magistrate of Capua during Hannibal's invasion, prevented the massacre of the Capuan senate. * Perolla Calavius Pacuvi f., the son of Pacuvius Calavius, intended to assassinate Hannibal, but abandoned the design at his father's urging. * Sthenius Calavius, according to some sources, the brother of Pacuvius Calavius, but his name was probably Sthenius Ninnius Celer. * Calavius Sabinus, commanded the twelfth legion under Gaius Caesennius Paetus during his campaign in Armenia, in AD 62.Tacitus, ''Annales'', xv. 7.

References

Bibliography

* Titus Livius (

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...

), '' History of Rome''. * Publius Cornelius Tacitus, ''

Annales Annals are a concise form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year. The equivalent word in Latin and French is ''annales'', which is used untranslated in English in various contexts. List of works with titles contai ...

''. * ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 p ...