The gens Menenia was an ancient and very illustrious patrician house 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 ...

from the earliest days of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

to the first half of the fourth century BC. The first of the family to obtain the

consulship The consuls were the highest elected public officials of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC). Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum''an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspire ...

was Agrippa Menenius Lanatus in 503 BC. The

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 ...

eventually drifted into obscurity, although a few Menenii are still attested in the epigraphy of the late Republic and imperial times.

Origin

During the first secession of the plebs in 493 BC, Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, the former consul, was despatched by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

as an emissary to the

plebeians In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not Patrician (ancient Rome), patricians, as determined by the Capite censi, census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Et ...

, who were gathered on the ''Mons Sacer''. He said that he was sprung from the plebs, although he and several generations of his descendants held the consulship at a time when, according to the historians of the late Republic, it was open only to the patricians. This suggests that the Menenii had recently been made patricians, probably during the reign of one of the later Roman kings.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. I, p. 716 (" Lanatus").

Praenomina

The Menenii are known to have used the

praenomina The praenomen (; plural: praenomina) was a first name chosen by the parents of a Ancient Rome, Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the ...

'' Agrippa,

Gaius Gaius, sometimes spelled Caius, was a common Latin praenomen; see Gaius (praenomen). People * Gaius (biblical figure) (1st century AD) *Gaius (jurist) (), Roman jurist * Gaius Acilius * Gaius Antonius * Gaius Antonius Hybrida * Gaius Asinius Gal ...

Titus Titus Caesar Vespasianus ( ; 30 December 39 – 13 September AD 81) was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, becoming the first Roman emperor ever to succeed h ...

'' and '' Lucius''. Together with the '' gens Furia'', they were amongst the only patrician families to make regular use of the praenomen ''Agrippa'', which was later revived as a

cognomen A ''cognomen'' (; : ''cognomina''; from ''co-'' "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 hereditar ...

in many families. For this reason, later sources erroneously refer to members of this gens as ''Menenius Agrippa''. ''Licinus'', the praenomen of one of the Menenii, was likewise a rare name, meaning ''upturned'', originally refererring to the bearer's nose. This was ordinarily a

, or surname, though here used as a praenomen. It is frequently confused with the '' nomen

Licinius Valerius Licinianus Licinius (; Ancient Greek, Greek: Λικίνιος; c. 265 – 325) was Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign, he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the Edict of Milan that ...

'', which was probably derived from it, although perhaps connected to the Etruscan ''lecne'', which seems to have been its equivalent. ''Licinus'' is expressly given in the '' Fasti Capitolini'', while Livy renders it as ''Licinius'', and some later historians have amended it to the more common praenomen ''Lucius''.

Branches and cognomina

The only ''cognomen'' associated with the Menenii of the early Republic is ''Lanatus''. This surname is derived from the

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 ...

adjective, meaning "wooly", and perhaps originally referred to a person with particularly fine, curly, or abundant hair.

Members

* Gaius Menenius Lanatus, father of Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, the consul of 503 BC. * Agrippa Menenius C. f. Lanatus,

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

in 503 BC, and emissary to the

during the first secession in 493. * Titus Menenius Agripp. f. C. n. Lanatus, consul in 477 BC, failed to intervene on behalf of the Fabii at the Battle of the Cremera.'' Fasti Capitolini'', . * Agrippa Menenius Agripp. f. C. n. Lanatus, father of Titus Menenius Lanatus, the consul of 452 BC. * Titus Menenius Agripp. f. Agripp. n. Lanatus, consul in 452 BC. * Lucius Menenius T. f. Agripp. n. Lanatus, possibly consul in 440 BC. * Agrippa Menenius T. f. Agripp. n. Lanatus, consul in 439 BC, and consular tribune in 419 and 417 BC. * Titus Menenius T. f. Agripp. n. Lanatus, father of Licinus Menenius Lanatus, the consular tribune of 387 BC. * Licinus Menenius T. f. T. n. Lanatus, consular tribune in 387, 380, 378, and 376 BC. * Menenius, proscribed by the triumvirs in 43 BC, but rescued from death by the self-devotion of one of his slaves.

Others

* Gaius Menenius C. f., one of several

equites The (; , though sometimes referred to as " knights" in English) constituted the second of the property/social-based classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the senatorial class. A member of the equestrian order was known as an (). Descript ...

named in an inscription from Samothrace in

Thracia Thracia or Thrace () is the ancient name given to the southeastern Balkans, Balkan region, the land inhabited by the Thracians. Thrace was ruled by the Odrysian kingdom during the Classical Greece, Classical and Hellenistic period, Hellenis ...

, dating from 100 BC. * Gaius Menenius C. f. Priscus, a native of

Luca Luca or LUCA may refer to: People * Luca (masculine given name), including a list of people * Luca (feminine given name), including a list of people * Luca (surname), including a list of people Places * The ancient name of Lucca, an Etruscan ...

Etruria Etruria ( ) was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber, an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria. It was inhabited by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization that f ...

, a soldier in the tenth urban cohort at Rome during the consulship of Rufinus and Quadratus, AD 142. He served in a

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

led by a

centurion In the Roman army during classical antiquity, a centurion (; , . ; , or ), was a commander, nominally of a century (), a military unit originally consisting of 100 legionaries. The size of the century changed over time; from the 1st century BC ...

named Spurius. * Menenius Adjutor, a soldier in the Legio XXII Primigenia, along with Gaius Appuleius Saturninus made an offering in honour of the

Lares Lares ( , ; archaic , singular ) were Tutelary deity#Ancient Rome, guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an ama ...

at Mogontiacum 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 ...

, according to an inscription from the first half of the third century.

Undated Menenii

* Lucius Menenius L. l. Antiochus, a freedman buried at Rome, along with several others, including the freedmen Lucius Menenius Demetrius and Lucius Menenius Stabilio.. * Menenius Crescens, buried at Castellum Phuensium in

Numidia Numidia was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunisia and Libya. The polity was originally divided between ...

. * Lucius Menenius Ɔ. l. Demetrius, a freedman buried at Rome, along with several others, including the freedmen Lucius Menenius Antiochus and Lucius Menenius Stabilio. * Aulus Menenius Hippolytus, dedicated a tomb at Rome for his wife, Nymphidia Margaris. The inscription may be a forgery. * Menenius Rufus, buried at Rome, was perhaps related to Publius Clodius Rufus, named immediately before him in the same inscription. * Lucius Menenius L. l. Stabilio, a freedman buried at Rome, along with several others, including the freedmen Lucius Menenius Antiochus and Lucius Menenius Demetrius. * Menenia Urbica, buried at Rome, aged thirty years, eight months, and twenty-two days, in a tomb built by her husband, Marcus Aurelius Eutyches..

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...

, ''

Bibliotheca Historica ''Bibliotheca historica'' (, ) is a work of Universal history (genre), universal history by Diodorus Siculus. It consisted of forty books, which were divided into three sections. The first six books are geographical in theme, and describe the h ...

'' (Library of History). * 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 i ...

), ''

Ab Urbe Condita ''Ab urbe condita'' (; 'from the founding of Rome, founding of the City'), or (; 'in the year since the city's founding'), abbreviated as AUC or AVC, expresses a date in years since 753 BC, 753 BC, the traditional founding of Rome. It is ...

'' (History of Rome). *

Dionysius of Halicarnassus Dionysius of Halicarnassus (, ; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary style was ''atticistic'' – imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime. ...

, ''Romaike Archaiologia''. * Appianus Alexandrinus (

Appian Appian of Alexandria (; ; ; ) was a Greek historian with Roman citizenship who prospered during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius. He was born c. 95 in Alexandria. After holding the senior offices in the pr ...

), ''Bellum Civile'' (The Civil War). *

Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, ...

, ''Noctes Atticae'' (Attic Nights). * Joannes Zonaras, ''Epitome Historiarum'' (Epitome of History). * Luigi Lanzi, ''Saggio di Lingua Etrusca e di Altre Antiche d'Italia'' (The Study of Etruscan and other Ancient Italian Languages), Stamperia Pagliarini, Rome (1789). * ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' is a biographical dictionary of classical antiquity, edited by William Smith (lexicographer), William Smith and originally published in London by John Taylor (English publisher), Tayl ...

'', William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849). *

Theodor Mommsen Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; ; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th ce ...

''et alii'', ''

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum The ''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'' (''CIL'') is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. It forms an authoritative source for documenting the surviving epigraphy of classical antiquity. Public and personal inscriptions throw ...

'' (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated ''CIL''), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–present). * René Cagnat ''et alii'', ''

L'Année épigraphique ''L'Année épigraphique'' (''The Epigraphic Year'', standard abbreviation ''AE'') is a French publication on epigraphy (i.e the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing). It was set up by René Cagnat, as holder of the chair of 'Epigraphy a ...

'' (The Year in Epigraphy, abbreviated ''AE''), Presses Universitaires de France (1888–present). * George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', vol. VIII (1897). * {{Refend Roman gentes