The gens Antonia was a Roman family of great antiquity, with both patrician and plebeian branches. The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Titus Antonius Merenda, one of the second group of Decemviri called, in 450 BC, to help draft what became the Law of the Twelve Tables. The most prominent member of the gens was Marcus Antonius.[1]

Marcus Antonius, one of the most well known members of the gens.

Origin

edit

Marcus Antonius, the triumvir, claimed that his gens was descended from Anton, a son of Heracles.[2] According to ancient traditions the Antonii were Heracleidae and because of that Marcus Antonius harnessed lions to his chariot to commemorate his descent from Heracles, and many of his coins bore a lion for the same reason.[2][3][4][1]

Praenomina

edit

The patrician Antonii used the praenomina Titus and Quintus. Titus does not appear to have been used by the plebeian Antonii, who instead used Quintus, Marcus, Lucius, and Gaius. There are also a few instances of Aulus, while Marcus Antonius the triumvir named one of his sons Iulus. This name, also borne by a later descendant of the triumvir, may have been an ancient praenomen revived by the family, but it was probably also intended to call to mind the connections of his family with the illustrious gens Julia.

Branches and cognomina

edit

The patrician Antonii bear the cognomen Merenda; the plebeian Antonii bear no surname under the Republic, with the exception of Quintus Antonius, propraetor in Sardinia in the time of Sulla, who is called Balbus on coins.[1]

Members

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

See also

edit

References

edit

Citations

edit
  1. ^ a b c Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 210 ("Antonia Gens").
  2. ^ a b Plutarch, "The Life of Marcus Antonius", 36, 60.
  3. ^ Pliny the Elder, viii. 16. s. 21; comp. Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, x. 13.
  4. ^ Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum Veterum, vi. pp. 38, 44.
  5. ^ Dionysius, x. 58, xi. 23, 33.
  6. ^ Livy, iii. 35, 38, 41, 42.
  7. ^ a b Fasti Capitolini AE 1900, 83; 1904, 114.
  8. ^ Livy, iv. 42.
  9. ^ Fasti Capit
  10. ^ Livy, viii. 17.
  11. ^ Valerius Maximus, ii. 9. § 2.
  12. ^ Livy, xxxvii. 32.
  13. ^ Livy, xlv. 4.
  14. ^ Livy, xlv. 21, 40.
  15. ^ Priscian. p. 286.
  16. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 213 ("Antonius", No. 7).
  17. ^ Florus, 86.
  18. ^ Plutarch, "The Life of Sertorius", 26.
  19. ^ Plutarch, "The Life of Pompeius", 24.
  20. ^ Valerius Maximus, iv. 2. § 6.
  21. ^ Cicero, Philippicae, ii. 38.
  22. ^ Plutarch], "The Life of Marcus Antonius", 9.
  23. ^ Cassius Dio, xliv. 53.
  24. ^ Appian, Bellum Civile, v. 93.
  25. ^ Suetonius, "The Life of Nero", 5.
  26. ^ Plutarch, "The Life of Marcus Antonius", 87.
  27. ^ Tacitus, Annales, iv. 44.
  28. ^ Bastianini, "Prefetti d'Egitto", p. 269.
  29. ^ Seneca the Elder, Suasoriae, 2. p. 19 (ed. Bipontina).
  30. ^ Gallivan, "The Fasti for the Reign of Claudius", pp. 408, 424.
  31. ^ Raepsaet-Charlier, Prosopographie des femmes, vol. 1, p. 91.
  32. ^ Bruun, Christer (2007). "Nero's 'Architects', Severus and Celer, and Residence Patterns in Rome". Scripta Classica Israelica. 26: 73–86.
  33. ^ a b Tacitus, Historiae, i. 20.
  34. ^ J. Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum Veterum, ii. p. 404.
  35. ^ Tacitus, Historiae, iv. 45.
  36. ^ Tacitus, Historiae, i. 87, ii. 12.
  37. ^ Pliny the Elder, xxv. 5.
  38. ^ Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, i. 5. § 43.
  39. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 670 ("Antonius Rufus").
  40. ^ Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, iv. 3, 18, v. 10.
  41. ^ Rüpke and Glock, Fasti Sacerdotum, p. 538.
  42. ^ Cooley, Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy, p. 467.
  43. ^ Cooley, Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy, p. 470.
  44. ^ Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand, p. 213.
  45. ^ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, iv. 1, ix. 15, xv. 1, xviii. 5, xix. 9, xx. 9.
  46. ^ AE 1955, 56

Bibliography

edit