Annia (gens)

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The gens Annia was a plebeian clan of considerable antiquity in ancient Latium which rose to prominence in Rome following the Roman incorporation of many of the Latin League states from the late 4th century BC.

The first person of this name mentioned by Livy was the Latin praetor Lucius Annius of Setia, a Roman colony in 340 BC.

The first of them to hold one of the Roman senior public offices (maiores magistratus) was Marcus Annius a praetor in the 220s BC and in 153 BC Titus Annius Luscus held the consulship, the supreme annual executive office, with Quintus Fulvius Nobilior. This was the signal year when the Roman civic year was first aligned with the calendar year so that both should commence on the Kalends (or 1st day) of January. This marked the seventh or eight adjustment to the beginning of the civic year during the Roman Republic, but it was never changed again in ancient times.

Subsequently the clan prospered politically and economically, but whereas most eminent Roman families with the same clan name employed hereditary surnames (cognomina) to distinguish themselves from one another, none of the successful Annian families followed this convention. This was also obvious to contemporaries ; in distinguishing T. Annius the orator from contemporary homonyms, Cicero employs his tribe in the place of a cognomen.[1] For modern scholarship of antiquity this effectively means that the different families, let alone the ramifications within the same families, are virtually impossible to disentangle.

The existence of at least four different Annian senatorial families by the second half of the 2nd century BC is known by fortuitous documentation of Annii in four different tribes in the period 140-89 BC ; Arnensis, Camillia, Pollia and Oufentina, while the orator of the same epoch, T. Annius in the Velina tribe, may also have been a senator, but if not he was surely a wealthy eques Romanus.

Where the Annian tribes are not on record the chief remaining evidence distinguishing different clan ramifications is the pattern of hereditary forename usage (always precarious when sampled from a small number of generations). Here too the Annii used only common ones, with the exception of Titus.

The Annia clan remained prominent at Rome through the first centuries BC and AD. The 2nd century emperor Marcus Aurelius was descended from a family of this name.[2]

There were several other Latin and Roman clans with similar orthography to the clan Annia, and these are sometimes confused in literary manuscripts owing to the hand written copying process repeated through long centuries. Examples include the clan Annaea and especially the clan Anneia.


Origin

Although the earliest of the Annii was from the Volscian town of Setia, he seems to have been a Latin, and the names used by the various members of this family are consistent with a Latin origin. Whether Roman Annii were descended from this Lucius Annius is not known. At least one early Annius was from Campania, but by this time, the family was already established at Rome.[2]

Praenomina

The main families of the Annii at Rome used the praenomina Titus, Lucius, and Gaius. The Annii Lusci preferred Titus and Gaius, while the Annii Bellieni used Lucius and Gaius. Other members of the gens used Lucius, Publius, Gaius, and Quintus.[2]

Branches and cognomina

A number of Annii during the Republic bore no cognomen. The principal branches of the Annii were surnamed Luscus and Bellienus (or Bilienus). Luscus is derived from a word variously translated as "one-eyed", "bleary-eyed", or "partly blind". It must have been applied to an ancestor of the oldest family of the gens, and the only one to obtain the consulship at Rome. One member of this family bore the additional surname Rufus, probably in reference to his red hair. The last noteworthy member of the family became known as Milo, apparently a reference to a notorious robber in southern Italy. A variety of surnames were borne by individual Annii, including Asellus, Bassus, Cimber, Faustus, Gallus, and Pollio.[2]

Members of the gens

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

Senatorial Annii of the late Republic

  • Marcus Annius, praetor in 220s BC[3] and IIIvir col.ded., that is a triumvir for the founding of colonies, for the new Latin status colonies at Placentia and Cremona in the Po Valley of Gallia Cisalpina in 218 BC. In this capacity he and his colleagues were obliged by a sudden rising of the Boii to take refuge in Mutina.[4]
  • Titus Annius T. f. Luscus, sent as an envoy to Perseus in 172 BC, and triumvir for augmenting the colony at Aquileia in 169.[5]
  • Titus Annius T. f. T. n. Luscus, consul in 153 BC, an orator who opposed Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus in 133.[6]
  • Titus Annius T. f. Rufus (c.174 - c.110s BC), consul in 128 BC, as praetor about 133/132 BC he supervised construction of the Annian Highway (Via Annia) which linked the Campanian highways through Lucania and Bruttium with the toe of Italy at the sea coast opposite Messana in Sicily.[7] Struck coinage, probably as urban quaestor, about 147 BC.[8]
  • Marcus Annius P. f. (born c.150/47), quaestor 120 BC, known only from a remarkable dated inscription from Lete in Makedonia[9] recording his brilliant achievements, as quaestor to the Macedonian governor Sextus Pompeius. After the latter was slain in battle during a large scale incursion by Scordisci and Maedi into Macedonia province in 120, Annius took charge, regrouped and repelled the invaders. The Lete inscription describes his conduct (lines 34-35) as worthy of his fatherland and his ancestors. This should mean nobilis ancestry since (unlike the Greeks) the Makedones were not profuse with standardized, meaningless, flattery. So probably a descendant of M. Annius praetor in the 220s.
  • Gaius Annius the vanquisher of Sertorius T. f. T. n. (c.120s - c.70s BC), probably praetor about 85 BC, he expelled Quintus Sertorius from Spain in 81 BC fighting for Sulla Felix, after taking charge of Gaius Valerius' army in Gallia Transalpina in late autumn 82.
  • Annia Cinnae uxor (born c.113 BC), last wife of the vir militaris Lucius Cornelius Cinna who dominated the Marian Party from the death of Marius in January 86(R) to his own in the spring of 84 BC. She bore him at least two children ; Cornelia, Caesar's first wife (born c.98) and L. Cinna filius pr. 44 (born 90s). After Cinna's death she was married in about 83 BC by the young Marcus Pupius Piso Frugi Calpurnianus (quaestor 83, later consul in 61, born c.113).[10] The couple were probably close or even exact coevals. Following the battle of the Colline Gate in autumn 82 BC Sulla ordered Piso to divorce her and he obediently complied.[11] She probably belonged to the consular house of Annii, who all seem to have defected from the Marians to Sulla in the course of 83 BC, together with young Pompey.
  • Quintus Annius Chilo, a senator by 64 BC when named as one of the original Catilinarian conspirators.[12] He was arrested in Rome in calendar December 63[13] and probably executed on the Nones. (RE Annius 18)
  • Annia T. f. (born c.110) wife of an eminent Lanuvine named Papius, and mother of Titus Annius Papianus Milo who was adopted by his maternal grandfather.[14]
  • Titus Annius Papianus Milo (c.95 - 48 BC), tribune of plebs in 57 BC, praetor in 55 BC, a violent adherent of Pompey famous for his marriage to Sulla's daughter Fausta, his slaying of his political rival Publius Clodius Pulcher in December 53 BC, and Cicero's surviving speech in his defence, pro T. Milone.
  • Lucius Annius C. f. Bellienus, praetor in 107 BC, served under Gaius Marius in the war against Jugurtha and Bocchus.[15][16]
  • Lucius Annius Bellienus, uncle of Catiline, ordered by Sulla to kill Quintus Lucretius Ofella, and condemned in 64 BC.[17]
  • Gaius Annius Bellienus, legate of Marcus Fonteius in Gallia Narbonensis, in 72 BC.[18]
  • Lucius Annius Bellienus, whose house was burnt down after the murder of Caesar in 44 BC.[19]

The business & trading house of Annii Aselli

  • Publius Annius Asellus, a senator who died in 75 BC, leaving his only daughter as sole heir to his great fortune. The following year his property was improperly seized by the urban praetor Gaius Verres and transferred to the secondary heir Lucius Annius in return for a substantial bribe.[20]
  • Annia P. f., the only surviving child and heiress of Publius Annius Asellus
  • Lucius Annius, the crooked secondary heir of Publius Annius Asellus who bribed Gaius Verres to transfer the great inheritance to himself. The proximity of his relationship to Asellus is unknown, though presumably same family
  • P. Annius P. l. Agatho, a freedman in Rome closely associated with two women called Veturia.[21] His cognomen suggests Greek origins.
  • Publius Annius Plocamus, held the contract from the imperial fisc for the collection of Red Sea revenues for some three decades (AD 5/6 to late reign of Tiberius).[22] This was all the sea between India and Egypt, including the Persian Gulf. His Greek cognomen suggests a connection with P. Annius Agatho.

Annii Veri, the family of Emperor Marcus Aurelius

Others

See also

List of Roman gentes

References

  1. ↑ Brut. 178 : T. Annius Velina
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  3. ↑ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, XXI, 25. 3 calls him vir praetorius in 218 BC, that is a man who had held the praetura
  4. ↑ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita XXI, 25 ; Polybius 3, 40
  5. ↑ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xlii. 25, xliii. 17.
  6. ↑ Plutarchus, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Tiberius Gracchus 14.
  7. ↑ ILLRP 454 and 454a, discussed by T. P. Wiseman, PBSR
  8. ↑ Crawford RRC type 221, signed : A/ RVF
  9. ↑ SIG 700, English translation and annotation by R.K. Sherk, TDGR 4, 51-53, no.48
  10. ↑ Velleius II, 41. 2
  11. ↑ Velleius II, 41. 2
  12. ↑ Gaius Sallustius Crispus, Catil. 17.3
  13. ↑ Gaius Sallustius Crispus, Catil. 50.4
  14. ↑ Quintus Asconius Pedianus, p. 58G = p. 53C
  15. ↑ Gaius Sallustius Crispus, Jugurthine War 104.
  16. ↑ T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (1952).
  17. ↑ Quintus Asconius Pedianus, in Toga Candida p. 92, ed. Orelli.
  18. ↑ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Fonteio 4.
  19. ↑ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Philippicae ii. 36.
  20. ↑ Marcus Tullius Cicero, In Verrem Second Actio I, 104-113 ; II, 21
  21. ↑ AE 1991, 110 (inscription found in Rome)
  22. ↑ Pliny NH VI, 84, JRS 43 (1953), 38-40
  23. ↑ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae vii. 9.
  24. ↑ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita ix. 46.
  25. ↑ Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX vi. 4. § 1.
  26. ↑ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxiii. 6, 22.
  27. ↑ Gaius Sallustius Crispus, Jugurthine War 37.
  28. ↑ Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX ix. 2. § 2.
  29. ↑ Appianus, Bellum Civile i. 72.
  30. ↑ Plutarchus, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Sertorius 7.
  31. ↑ Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales vi. 9, xv. 56, 71, xvi. 30.
  32. ↑ Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Historiae ii. 10.
  33. ↑ Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Historiae iii. 50.
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Birley, The Roman government of Britain p. 112
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 Pomeroy, The murder of Regilla: a case of domestic violence in antiquity
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Birley, The Roman government of Britain p. 114
  37. ↑ de:Appius Annius Atilius Bradua


Ancient sources

  • RDGE - Sherk, Robert K., Roman Documents from the Greek East: Senatus Consulta and Epistulae to the Age of Augustus (The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1969)
  • SIG - Sylloge inscriptionum graecarum, ed.3, editors Wilhelm Dittenberger, Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen, Johannes Kirchner, Hans Rudolf Pomtow and Erich Ziebarth (4 volumes, Leipzig, 1915-1924)
  • AE (with serial year date) = L'Année Épigraphique, a normally annual publication collecting together recently discovered and published ancient epigraphic texts, mostly Latin. Published by the Presses Universitaires de France.

Modern works

  • RE s.v. Annius

- Real-Encyclopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft (edited by von Pauly, Wissowa and Kroll)

  • MRR I

- T. Robert S. Broughton & Marcia L. Patterson, Magistrates of the Roman Republic, vol. 1 : 509 - 100 BC (American Philological Association, New York, 1951)

  • MRR II

- T. Robert S. Broughton, Magistrates of the Roman Republic, vol. 2 : 99 - 31 BC (American Philological Association, New York, 1952)

  • MRR III

- T. Robert S. Broughton, Magistrates of the Roman Republic, vol. 3 , Supplement (arranged alphabetically by nomina gentilicia, the first two volumes follow a chronological organization)


  • Badian, Ernst, s.v. Hortensius (2, PW 13) Hortalus, pp. 530-31 in The Oxford Classical Dictionary (ed.2, 1970)
  • Crawford, Michael H., Roman Republican Coinage (Cambridge UP, 1974)
  • Gruen, Erich S., The Last Generation of the Roman Republic (University of California Press, 1974 ; paperback edition with new introduction 1995)
  • Sumner, Graham V., The Orators in Cicero's Brutus : Prosopography and Chronology (University of Toronto Press, 1973)
  • Shackleton Bailey, David R., Two Studies in Roman Nomenclature (American Classical Studies, Number 3, The American Philological Association, 1976)


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