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Sergia gens

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The gens Sergia patrician family at ancient Rome, which held the highest offices of the Roman state from the first century of the Republic until imperial times. The first of the Sergii to obtain the consulship was Lucius Sergius Fidenas in 437 BC. Despite long and distinguished service, toward the end of the Republic the reputation of this gens suffered as a result of the conspiracy of Catiline.[1]

Arch of the Sergii in Pula, Croatia

Origin

The Sergii claimed descent from Sergestus, one of the Trojans who came to Italy with Aeneas, a tradition mentioned by Vergil in the Aeneid.[2][1] The etymology of the nomen Sergius is problematic. Chase hesitantly suggests a connection with the praenomen Servius, probably from an old Latin root meaning to preserve or keep safe. He classifies the nomen with other gentilicia that either originated at Rome, or cannot be shown to have come from anywhere else.[3] However, the cognomen Fidenas, borne by the first branch of this gens appearing in history, may indicate that they originally came from Fidenae, where Roman colonies had been planted for centuries.[4]

Branches and cognomina

The cognomina of the Sergii during the Republic were Catilina, Esquilinus, Fidenas, Orata, Paulus, Plancus, and Silus. Some of the Sergii who appear in history had no surname.[1]

Fidenas, the surname of the oldest distinct family of the Sergii, is said to have been obtained by Lucius Sergius Fidenas, the consul of 437 BC. The year before his consulship, the Romans had put down a revolt at Fidenae, an ancient Latin city about five miles north of Rome; the implication perhaps being that Sergius had participated in the recovery of the city. However, it may be that Sergius, or one of his ancestors, was a native of that city, where a Roman colony was said to have existed since the early monarchial period.[5][4] One of the Fidenates bore the additional surname Coxo, applied to one with prominent hips.[6]

Esquilinus originally designated someone who lived on the Esquiline Hill, one of the Seven Hills of Rome, may have been a personal cognomen, as only one of the Sergii is known to have borne it. This cognomen belongs to a common class of surnames derived from the place of a person's origin or residence.[7][8]

Members

This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.
  • Lucius Sergius Esquilinus,[i] a member of the second decemvirate in 450 and 449 BC.[9][10][11][12][13]
  • Sergia, one of a group of Roman matrons accused as poisoners in 331 BC.
  • Marcus Sergius, a military tribune sent to Rhegium by Scipio Africanus in 205 BC. There he was murdered by the propraetor Quintus Pleminius.[14]
  • Lucius Sergius, one of the ambassadors sent to Carthage by Scipio Africanus in 203 BC.[15]
  • Gaius Sergius Plancus, praetor urbanus in 200 BC; the following year he was appointed propraetor for distributing land to the veterans of the war in Hispania, Sardinia, and Sicily.[16]
  • Quintus Sergius, a senator who lived at the time of the Social War, was condemned inter sicarios; that is, by a court of inquiry into those accused of being assassins.[17]
  • Lucius Sergius Catilina, better known as Catiline, had been a fierce partisan of Sulla, and earned a reputation for savageness and cruelty, but was still able to attain political office. He was praetor in 68 BC, and afterward governor of Africa. After being frustrated in his attempts to gain the consulship, he formed a plot to overthrow the Republic in 63, but the plot was exposed by Cicero. Catiline fled the city and attempted to rally his forces, but was intercepted and fell in battle.[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]
  • Sergia, the sister of Catiline, and widow of the eques Quintus Caecilius, who had perished in Sulla's proscriptions.[26][27]
  • Lucius Sergius, one of Catiline's accomplices, who supplied him with weaponry. He later fell in with Publius Clodius Pulcher.[28]
  • Sergius, one of those proscribed by the triumvirs, sought the assistance of Marcus Antonius, who was able to procure his pardon.[29]
  • Gaius Sergius Orata, a wealthy merchant and inventor who flourished around the beginning of the first century BC. He pioneered the use of the hypocaust to heat known for the breeding and commercialization of oysters, of which he was a noted innovator.
  • Lucius Sergius Paulus, proconsul of Cyprus in the time of Claudius.[30]
  • Sergius, the son of Aphthonius, is described in the Suda as a consular who served as praetorian prefect. He was a native of Zeugma, and had a brother, Sabinus. Sergius wrote a treatise in opposition to Aelius Aristides.[31]
  • Sergius, a Latin grammarian, and the author of In Primam Donati Editionem Commentarium and In Secundam Donati Editionem Commentaria.[32]

Sergii Fidenates

  • Lucius Sergius C. f. C. n. Fidenas, consul in 437 and 429 BC, and consular tribune in 433, 424, and 418.[33][34]
  • Manius Sergius L. f. L. n. Fidenas, consular tribune in 404 BC, during which year he and his colleagues captured and destroyed the Volscian town of Artena. Consular tribune for the second time in 402 BC, personal enmity between Sergius and his colleague, Lucius Verginius, led to a Roman defeat and the evacuation of one of the Roman fortifications in the siege of Veii. The following year, Sergius and Verginius were prosecuted by the tribunes of the plebs, and fined ten thousand asses apiece.[35][36]
  • Lucius Sergius M'. f. L. n. Fidenas, consular tribune in 397 BC.[37][38]
  • Gaius Sergius Fidenas,[ii] surnamed Coxo, consular tribune in 387, 385, and 380 BC.[39][12]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Esquilinus' praenomen is very uncertain. Livy first calls the decemvir Marcus, then later refers to him as Lucius. Dionysius gives Marcus, but Diodorus has Gaius. His praenomen has not been preserved in the Fasti Capitolini.
  2. ^ Livy gives his praenomen as Gaius, but a fragment of the Fasti Capitolini appears to give Gnaeus.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 787 ("Sergia Gens").
  2. ^ Vergil, Aeneid, v. 121.
  3. ^ Chase, pp. 131, 154, 155.
  4. ^ a b Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 149 ("Fidenas")
  5. ^ Livy, i. 27.
  6. ^ Chase, p. 110.
  7. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 53 ("Esquilinus").
  8. ^ Chase, pp. 113, 114.
  9. ^ Livy, iii. 35, 41.
  10. ^ Dionysius, xi. 23.
  11. ^ Diodorus Siculus, xii. 24.
  12. ^ a b Fasti Capitolini, AE 1900, 83; 1904, 114; AE 1927, 101; 1940, 59, 60.
  13. ^ Broughton, vol. I, pp. 46, 47 (note 3).
  14. ^ Livy, xxix. 6, 9.
  15. ^ Livy, xxx. 25.
  16. ^ Livy, xxxi. 4, 6, xxxii. 1.
  17. ^ Cicero, Pro Cluentio, 7.
  18. ^ Sallust, Bellum Catilinae.
  19. ^ Cassius Dio, xxxvi. 27, xxxvii. 10, 29–42.
  20. ^ Livy, Epitome, 101, 102.
  21. ^ Cicero, In Catilinam, passim, Pro Murena, 25, 26, In Pisonem, 2, Pro Flacco, 40, Pro Plancio, 37, Epistulae ad Atticum, i. 19, ii. 1, xii. 21, xvi. 14, Epistulae ad Familiares, i. 9.
  22. ^ Suetonius, "The Life of Caesar", 14.
  23. ^ Plutarch, "The Life of Cicero", 10–22, "The Life of Cato the Younger", 23.
  24. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, pp. 629–634 ("Catilina").
  25. ^ Winningham, Catiline.
  26. ^ Quintus Tullius Cicero, De Petitione Consulatus, 2.
  27. ^ Asconius Pedianus, In Ciceronis in Toga Candida, p. 84 (ed. Orelli).
  28. ^ Cicero, De Domo Sua, 5, 33.
  29. ^ Appian, Bellum Civile, iv. 45.
  30. ^ Easton's Bible Dictionary, "Sergius Paulus".
  31. ^ Suda.
  32. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 788 ("Sergius").
  33. ^ Livy, iv. 17, 25, 30, 35, 45.
  34. ^ Diodorus Siculus, xii. 43, 58, 73, 82, xiii. 2.
  35. ^ Livy, iv. 61, v. 8, 9, 11, 12.
  36. ^ Diodorus Siculus, xiv. 19, 38.
  37. ^ Livy, v. 16.
  38. ^ Diodorus Siculus, xiv. 85.
  39. ^ Livy, vi. 5, 11, 27.

Bibliography

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