Licinia Eudoxia
Licinia Eudoxia (422–462) was a Roman Empress, daughter of Eastern Emperor Theodosius II. Her husbands included the Western Emperors Valentinian III and Petronius Maximus.
Family
Eudoxia was born in 422, the daughter of Theodosius II, Eastern Roman Emperor and his consort Aelia Eudocia, a woman of Greek origin. Her only known siblings, Arcadius and Flacilla, predeceased their parents. Their paternal grandparents were Arcadius and Aelia Eudoxia. Their maternal grandfather was Leontius, a sophist from Athens.
The identity of her maternal grandfather was first given by Socrates of Constantinople. John Malalas later gave a more detailed account of her mother's history. As summarised in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, "The celebrated Athenais was educated by her father Leontius in the religion and sciences of the Greeks; and so advantageous was the opinion which the Athenian philosopher entertained of his contemporaries, that he divided his patrimony between his two sons, bequeathing to his daughter a small legacy of one hundred pieces of gold, in the lively confidence that her beauty and merit would be a sufficient portion.
Licinia
Licinia is the name used by ancient Roman women of the gens Licinia, including
- Licinia Major (Major Latin for the elder, flourished 2nd century BC), was married to Gaius Sulpicius Galba.
- Licinia Minor (Minor Latin for the younger, flourished 2nd century BC), also known as Licinia Crassi. A younger daughter, she was the wife of Gaius Gracchus. Her dowry was seized temporarily by the Senate when her husband's property was confiscated, but eventually restored after an appeal to her uncle Publius Mucius Scaevola the Pontifex Maximus.
Licinia (disambiguation)
Licinia is a Latin name and proper adjective that may refer to:
- Lex Licinia Sextia, a 4th-century BC law that was supposed to reserve one of the two consulships for a man of plebeian status
- Lex Licinia Mucia, a law of 95 BC addressing false claims of Roman citizenship
- Lex Junia Licinia, a law of 62 BC pertaining to the people's assemblies
Licinia (gens)
The gens Licinia was a celebrated plebeian family at Rome, which appears from the earliest days of the Republic until imperial times, and which eventually obtained the imperial dignity. The first of the gens to obtain the consulship was Gaius Licinius Calvus Stolo, who, as tribune of the plebs from 376 to 367 BC, prevented the election of any of the annual magistrates, until the patricians acquiesced to the passage of the lex Licinia Sextia, or Licinian Rogations. This law, named for Licinius and his colleague, Lucius Sextius, opened the consulship for the first time to the plebeians. Licinius himself was subsequently elected consul in 364 and 361 BC, and from this time, the Licinii became one of the most illustrious gentes in the Republic.
Origin of the gens
The nomen Licinius is derived from the cognomen Licinus, found in a number of Roman gentes. Licinus may have been an ancient praenomen, but few examples of its use as such are known. The name appears to be derived from the Etruscan Lecne, which frequently occurs on Etruscan sepulchral monuments. The Licinii were probably of Etruscan origin, and may have come to Rome during the time of the later kings, two of whom, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus and his son or grandson, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, were themselves Etruscan.
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