Sergia (gens)
The gens Sergia (or the Sergii), was a famous patrician family in ancient Rome, of which Lucius Sergius Catilina was a member.
The Sergii were one of the oldest patrician families in Rome. Although they were of consular heritage, the Sergii were by the time of the conspiracy of Catiline in the first century BCE declining in both social and financial fortunes.
Virgil later gave the family an ancestor, Sergestus, who had come with Aeneas to Italy, presumably because they were notably ancient; but they had not been prominent for centuries, Sergestusque, domus tenet a quo Sergia nomen.
The last Sergius to be consul had been Gnaeus Sergius Fidenas Coxo in 380 BC.[1]
Branches and cognomina of the gens
The Sergii regularly used the cognomina Esquilinus, Fidenas and Catilina.
Members
- This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.
- Sergestus, Trojan friend of Aeneas. He was believed to be the ancestor of gens Sergia.[2]
- L. Sergius Esquilinus, military tribune in 450 and 449 BC.[3]
- L. Sergius Catilina, attempted to overthrow the Roman Republic in 63 BC. A plot that was exposed by Cicero, forcing Catiline to flee Rome.[4]
- C. Sergius Orata, merchant and hydraulic engineer known for the breeding and commercialization of oysters, of which he was a noted innovator.[5]
- L. Sergius Paulus, Proconsul of Cyprus under Claudius (1st century AD).[6]
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Sallust, De coniuratione Catilinae V.1; Vergil, Aeneid V.121
- ↑ Virgil, Aeneid, v. 288
- ↑ Broughton, T. Robert S. (1951), The American Philological Association, ed., The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, Philological Monographs, number XV, volume I, New York, vol. I, 509 B.C. - 100 B.C. p. 46
- ↑ Winningham, Brandon (March 19, 2007) [2007]. Catiline. iUniverse, Inc. ISBN 978-0-595-42416-0.
- ↑ Smith, William. "ORATA or AURA'TA, C. SE'RGIUS". p. 40. Retrieved 2013-04-16.
- ↑ "Sergius Paulus," Easton's Bible Dictionary.
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.