Atilia (gens)

The gens Atilia, sometimes written Atillia, was a family at Rome, which had both patrician and plebeian branches. The first member of this gens who obtained the consulship was Marcus Atilius Regulus, in 335 BC. The Atilii continued to hold the highest offices of the state throughout the history of the Republic, and well into imperial times.^[1]

Praenomina

The Atilii favored the praenomina Lucius, Marcus, Gaius, Aulus, and Sextus. Other praenomina do not appear to have been used before imperial times.^[1]

Branches and cognomina

The cognomina of the Atilii under the Republic are Bulbus, Calatinus, Longus, Regulus, and Serranus; and of these the Longi were undoubtedly patrician. The only cognomen found on coins is Saranus, which appears to be the same as Serranus. Calatinus, also found as Caiatinus, probably refers either to the town of Cales in Campania, or to the neighboring town of Caia. One of the Atilii Reguli had previously obtained the surname Calenus in consequence of a battle fought at Cales in 335 BC.^[1][2][3]

The Atilii Reguli were the most important family of the gens. They appear in the latter half of the fourth century BC, and the Atilii Serrani are descended from them. This family flourished until the first century BC.^[1]

Members

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

• Lucius Atilius Longus, one of the first consular tribunes, elected in 444 BC. In consequence of a defect in the auspices, he and his colleagues resigned, and consuls were appointed in their stead.^[4][5]
• Lucius Atilius L. f. L. n. Priscus, tribunus militum consulari potestate in 399 and 396 BC.
• Lucius Atilius, tribune of the plebs in 311 BC.
• Aulus Atilius A. f. C. n. Calatinus, consul in 258 and 254 BC, and dictator in 249.
• Gaius Atilius A. f. A. n. Bulbus, consul in 245 and 235 BC.
• Lucius Atilius, quaestor in 216 BC, slain at the Battle of Cannae.^[6]
• Marcus Atilius, duumvir in 216 BC, with Gaius Atilius, dedicated the temple of Concordia, which L. Manlius Vulso, the praetor, had vowed.^[7]
• Gaius Atilius, duumvir in 216 BC. with Marcus Atilius.^[7]
• Lucius Atilius, commander of the Roman garrison in Locri, escaped with his troops by sea, when the town was surrendered to Hannibal in 215 BC.^[8]
• Lucius Atilius, praetor in 197 BC, obtained Sardinia as his province.^[9]
• Lucius Atilius, sent to Samothrace by Lucius Aemilius Paullus to demand the surrender of Perseus in 168 BC.
• Lucius Atilius, a jurist, who probably lived in the middle of the 2nd century BC
• Marcus Atilius, a comic poet during the 2nd century BC, quoted by Cicero and Varro.
• Atilius, a freedman, built an amphitheatre at Fidenae in the reign of Tiberius, which collapsed, killing between twenty and fifty thousand spectators.^[10][11]
• Atilius Vergilio, a standard-bearer who deserted Galba in AD 69.
• Atilius Rufus, a man of consular rank, was governor of Syria during the reign of Domitian, and died just before the return of Agricola from Britannia, in AD 84.^[12]
• Atilius Crescens, a friend of the younger Gaius Plinius.
• Marcus Atilius Postumus Bradua, a proconsul of the Asia Province under the Roman Emperor Domitian (81-96)^[13]
• Marcus Atilius Metilius Bradua, consul in AD 108
• Marcus Atilius Metilius Bradua Caucidius Tertullus…Bassus, son of the above, who served as a polyonymous Proconsul of the Africa Province under Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius^[14]
• Atilia Caucidia Tertulla, sister to the above proconsul, daughter of Marcus Atilius Metilius Bradua and Caucidia Tertulla^[15][16]
• Titus Atilius Titianus, consul in AD 127.^[2]
• Atilius Fortunatianus, a Latin grammarian, probably not later than the fourth century.

Atilii Reguli et Serrani

• Marcus Atilius (M. f.) Regulus, surnamed Calenus, consul in 335 BC, with his colleague, Marcus Valerius Corvus, conquered Cales.
• Marcus Atilius M. f. M. n. Regulus, consul in 294 BC, triumphed over the Samnites.
• Marcus Atilius M. f. L. n. Regulus, consul in 267 and consul suffectus in 256 BC, captured during the First Punic War.
• Gaius Atilius M. f. M. n. Regulus, surnamed Serranus, consul in 257 and 250 BC.
• Marcus Atilius M. f. M. n. Regulus, consul in 227 and 217 BC, and censor in 214.
• Gaius Atilius M. f. M. n. Regulus, consul in 225 BC, slain at the Battle of Telamon.
• Gaius Atilius (C. f. M. n.) Serranus, praetor in 218 BC.
• Gaius Atilius (C. f. C. n.) Serranus, praetor in 185 BC.
• Aulus Atilius (C. f. C. n.) Serranus, consul in 170 BC.
• Marcus Atilius (C. f. C. n.) Serranus, praetor in 174 BC.
• Marcus Atilius Serranus, praetor in Hispania Ulterior in 152 BC, defeated the Lusitani, and took their principal city, Oxthracae.^[17]
• Sextus Atilius M. f. C. n. Serranus, consul in 136 BC.
• Gaius Atilius Serranus, consul in 106 BC, took up arms against Saturninus in 100.
• Atilius Serranus, one of the distinguished men slain by order of Marius and Cinna, when they entered Rome at the close of 87 BC.^[18]
• Sextus Atilius Serranus Gavianus, tribune of the plebs in 57 BC.
• Atilius Serranus Domesticus, mentioned by Cicero in 54 BC.^[19]

See also

• List of Roman gentes

Footnotes

1. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
2. Fasti Capitolini
3. T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (1952).
4. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita iv. 7.
5. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Romaike Archaiologia xi. 61.
6. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxii. 49.
7. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxiii. 22.
8. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxiv. 1.
9. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxxii. 27, 28.
10. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum Tiberius 40.
11. Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales iv. 62, 63.
12. Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Agricola 40.
13. Birley, The Roman government of Britain p.112
14. Birley, The Roman government of Britain p. 113-114
15. Pomeroy, The murder of Regilla: a case of domestic violence of antiquity p. 15
16. Birley, The Roman government of Britain p. 112
17. Appianus, Hispanica 58.
18. Appianus, Bellum Civile i. 72.
19. Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem iii. 8 § 5.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "^{article name needed}". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.