Terentia (gens)

The gens Terentia was a plebeian Roman family. The name comes from the Sabine terenus ("soft").^[1] The gens is mentioned from 462 BC, the year Gaius Terentillus Arsa became tribune of the plebs.^[2] (Dionysius of Halicarnassus names him Gaius Terentius).^[3] The Terentii ascended to the status of Roman consul with Gaius Terentius Varro, who commanded at the time of the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC. We find members of this family under the early empire, and as late as the 3rd century AD.

The principle cognomina of the Terentii during the Republic are Culleo, Lucanus, and Varro.

Members

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

Male members

• C. Terentilius Arsa (called Terentius by Dionysius of Halicarnassus), tribune of the plebs in 462 BC.^[4]
• Q. Terentius, who was sent by the Senate with M. Antistius to bring back the consul C. Laminius, who refused to obey an order.^[5]
• L. Terentius Massaliota, plebeian aedile in 200 BC, praetor in 187 BC.^[6]
• L. Terentius, one of the ambassadors sent to king Antiochus in 196 BC.^[7]
• C. Terentius Istra, praetor in 182 BC.^[8]
• L. Terentius Massaliota, military tribune in 180 BC.^[9]
• P. Terentius Tuscivanus, was one of the ambassadors sent to Illyria.^[10]
• Terentius Vespa, mentioned by Cicero.^[11]
• L. Terentius, friend of Pompey.^[12]
• Cn. Terentius, senator in which was confided the guard of Caeparius, one of the accomplices of Catilina.^[13]
• P. Terentius Hispo, friend of Cicero.^[14]
• Servius Terentius, friend of Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus.^[15]
• M. Terentius, equite, accused in AD 32 of being a friend of Sejanus.^[16]
• Terentius Lentinus, equite, helped Valerius Fabianus attempt to forge wills, but was condemned in AD 61.^[17]
• Terentius, who according to some had been the murderer of Galba.^[18]
• Q. Terentius Culleo, senator, captured by the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War.^[19]

Terentii Varrones

• C. Terentius Varro ("Varro"), consul in 216 BC.^[20]
• P. Terentius Afer ("Terence") (190 - 159 BC), the comic playwright known in English as Terence, a slave then freedman of a member of the family, who thus took its name.^[21]
• M. Terentius Varro Lucullus (116 - 56 BC), consul 73 BC, brother of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, adopted by the Terentii Varrones.^[22]
• A. Terentius Varro Murena ("Varro"), consul in 23 BC.^[23]
• P. Terentius Varro Atacinus ("Varro") (82 - 37 BC), Roman poet.^[24]
• Terentius Maximus (1st century AD), usurper during the reign of Titus.^[25]
• Q. Terentius Scaurus (2nd century AD), grammarian.
• Terentius Maurus (3rd century AD), writer.

Female members

• Terentia, wife of Cicero.^[26]
• Terentia Alba, wife of Lucius Otho and mother of the emperor Otho.^[27]

See also

• Varro (cognomen)
• Terentius Varro, for a list of Terentii during the Roman Republic who used the cognomen Varro

References

1. Macrobius, Saturnalia, ii. 91.
2. Livy, iii. 9.
3. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, History of Rome x. 1.
4. Arnold, Thomas, History of Rome, p. 227.
5. Livy, xxi. 63.
6. Livy, xxxi. 50, xxxviiii. 42.
7. Livy, xxxiii. 35.
8. Livy, xxxix. 56, xl. 1, xl. 29.
9. Livy, xl. 35.
10. Livy, xlv. 18.
11. Cicero, De Oratore, ii. 61.
12. Plutarch, Life of Pompey, 3.
13. Sallust, Cataline Conspiracy, 47.
14. Cicero, ad Attica, xi. 10.
15. Valerius Maximus
16. Tacitus, Annales, vi. 8, 9.
17. Tacitus, Annales, xiv. 40.
18. Tacitus, Histories, i. 41; Plutarch, Life of Galba, 27.
19. Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, xxx. 43.11
20. Livy, xxii. 25.
21. Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Lucanus, Terentius", Boston, 1870.
22. Smith, William (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 2., p.831
23. Swan, pg. 240
24. Smith, William (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
25. Cassius Dio, Roman History LXVI.19.3
26. Rawson, E.: "Cicero, a portrait" (1975) p.25
27. Suetonius, De vita Caesarum, Otho, I

Sources

Primary

• Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita.

Secondary

• Rawson, Elizabeth: Cicero: A Portrait (Allen Lane, Penguin Books Ltd., 1975) ISBN 0-7139-0864-5. Revised edition: Bristol Classical Press, 1983. ISBN 0-86292-051-5. American edition of revised edition: Cornell University Press, 1983. ISBN 0-8014-1628-0 (hardcover); ISBN 0-8014-9256-4 (paperback).
• Swan, Michael, The Consular Fasti of 23 B.C. and the Conspiracy of Varro Murena, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Volume 71, pgs. 235 – 247, Harvard University Press, 1967

 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.