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House of Cornelius Rufus, Pompei

The gens Cornelia was one of the most distinguished Roman gentes, and produced a greater number of illustrious men than any other house at Rome. The first of this gens to achieve the consulship was Servius Cornelius Cossus Maluginensis, who held that office in 485 B.C.[1]

The gens was a major contributor to the highest offices of the Republic, and contested for consulships with the Fabii and the Valerii from the third century B.C. Over thirty percent of all consulships were held by men from this gens; several great commanders also came from this family.

Contents

[edit] Origin of the gens

The origin of the Cornelii are lost to history, but the nomen Cornelius may be formed from the hypothetical cognomen Corneus, meaning "horny", that is, having thick or callused skin. The existence of such a cognomen in early times may be inferred from its diminutive, Corneolus.[2]

Another possibility is that the name is related to the surname Cossus, used by the most ancient branch of the gens. Cossus may be an archaic praenomen used by the ancestors of the Cornelii, which was subsequently used as a cognomen by the family. A similar instance is found in the patrician Furia gens, originally Fusia, which was evidently derived from the archaic praenomen Fusus. That gens later used Fusus as a cognomen, just as the Cornelii did with Cossus. Long after that branch of the family had disappeared, Cossus was revived as a praenomen by the later Cornelii.[3]

[edit] Praenomina used by the gens

The Cornelii employed a wide variety of praenomina, although individual families tended to favor certain names and avoid others. Servius, Lucius, Publius, Gnaeus, and Marcus were common to most branches. Aulus was used by the Cornelii Cossi. Gaius was used by both the Cornelii Cethegi and Lentuli. The praenomen Tiberius also appears once amongst the Lentuli, who later revived the former cognomen Cossus as a praenomen.[4]

In the first century B.C., the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla named his twin children Faustus and Fausta, reviving an old praenomen that was regularly used by his descendants over the next two centuries, and making the Cornelii the only patrician family known to have used that name. Sulla's youngest daughter is believed to have been named Postuma, although no other instances of this name amongst the Cornelii are known.[5]

[edit] Branches and cognomina of the gens

Tombstone of the brothers Gaius and Lucius Cornelius, sons of Gaius

The gens included both patricians and plebeians, but all its great families belonged to the patrician order. The names of the patrician families are Arvina, Blasio, Cethegus, Cinna, Cossus, Dolabella, Lentulus, Maluginensis, Mammula, Merenda, Merula, Rufinus, Scapula, Scipio, Sisenna, and Sulla. The names of the plebeian families are Balbus and Gallus, and we also find various cognomina, as Chrysogonus, Culleolus, Phagita, etc., given to freedmen of this gens. There are also several plebeians mentioned without any surname. Under the Empire the number of cognomina increased considerably.[6]

The most ancient stirpes of the Cornelii bore the cognomina Cossus and Maluginensis. The Cossi and Maluginenses were probably one family originally, for at first both these surnames are united, as for instance, in the case of Servius Cornelius Cossus Maluginensis, consul in 485 B.C. Afterwards, however, the Cossi and Maluginenses became two separate families. The Cossi produced many illustrious men in the fourth and fifth centuries B.C., but afterwards sunk into oblivion. The last consuls from this stirps bore the surname Arvina. The name Cossus was afterwards revived as a praenomen in the family of the Lentuli, who belonged to the same gens. The Maluginenses last held consular authority in 367 B.C.[7]

The Cornelii Scipiones first appear at the beginning of the fourth century B.C., with Publius Cornelius Scipio, said to have been magister equitum to the dictator Marcus Furius Camillus in 396 B.C. The Capitoline Fasti identify the magister equitum of that year as Publius Cornelius Maluginensis, suggesting that the Scipiones may have originated as a branch of the Maluginenses.[8][9]

The surname Scipio, which signifies a stick or staff, is said to have been originally given to a Cornelius, because he served as a staff in directing his blind father (patrem pro baculo regebat), and to have been handed down by him as a family name to his descendants. This family produced some of the greatest men in Rome, and to them she was more indebted than to any others for the empire of the world. They bore the agnomina Africanus, Asiaticus, Asina, Barbatus, Calvus, Hispallus, Nasica, and Serapio. With the additional cognomen Orfitus, the family remained prominent until the second century A.D.[10][11]

Lentulus was the name of one of the haughtiest families of the Cornelian gens; so that Cicero coins the words Appietas and Lentulitas to express the qualities of the high patrician party. When we find plebeians bearing the name (as tribunes of the plebs), they were no doubt descendants of freedmen. Lentulus was said to be derived from lens, a lentil, much as Cicero is said to be derived from cicer, a chickpea. However, the Latin adjective lentulus means "slow". The Lentuli first appear in history at the time of the Gallic sack of Rome, early in the fourth century B.C., and from that time remained prominent until the first century A.D. They bore the agnomina Caudinus, Clodianus, Crus, Gaetulicus, Lupus, Maluginensis, Marcellinus, Niger, Rufinus, Scipio, Spinther, and Sura.[12][13][14]

The Cornelii Rufini appear in the latter half of the fourth century B.C., beginning with Publius Cornelius Rufinus, dictator in 334 B.C. From the surname Rufinus, meaning "reddish", one may infer that the first of this family had red hair. A descendant of this family was the first to assume the cognomen Sulla, about the time of the Second Punic War. The name is probably a diminutive of Sura, a cognomen found in several gentes, including among the Cornelii Lentuli. Plutarch, who erroneously believed that the dictator Sulla was the first to bear the name, thought it must have referred to a blotchy, reddish complexion, while Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius derives it from Sibylla, an etymology that is rejected by Quintilian. The Sullae continued in the highest offices of the state well into imperial times. Some of them bore the agnomen Felix.[15][16][17]

The Dolabellae first came to prominence at the beginning of the third century B.C., and so remained until the second half of the first century A.D. The Cornelii Blasiones flourished for about a century, begining in the early third century B.C. The Cethegi, who first appear in the latter half of the third century B.C., were described by Quintus Horatius Flaccus as cinctuti Cethegi, for their old-fashioned practice of wearing their arms bare. They remained prominent for the next two centuries.[18][19]

Merula signifies an ouzle, or blackbird. The family that bore this surname rose from obscurity at the beginning of the second century B.C., and continued for the next century. The Cornelii Cinnae flourished from the late second century B.C. to the early decades of the Empire.[20]

The Cornelii Balbi were, properly speaking, no part of the Cornelia gens. The first of this name was not a Roman; he was a native of Gades; and his original name probably bore some resemblance to the Latin Balbus. Gaius Cornelius Gallus, the poet, and later prefect of Egypt, was evidently of Gallic descent, coming as a young man from the town of Forum Julii, and presumably manumitted by one of the Cornelii Cinnae or Sullae. None of his descendants achieved any prominence.[21]

Over 30% of all the consuls of the republican period of ancient Rome were Cornelians. The notable men and women of the Cornelii family are listed separately, below.

[edit] Members of the gens

[edit] Cornelii Maluginenses

[edit] Cornelii Cossi

[edit] Cornelii Scipiones

[edit] Cornelii Lentuli

[edit] Cornelii Rufini et Sullae

[edit] Cornelii Dolabellae

[edit] Cornelii Blasiones

  • Gnaeus Cornelius L. f. Cn. n. Blasio, consul in 270 and 257 B.C., and censor in 265.
  • Gnaeus Cornelius Blasio, praetor in Sicilia in 194 B.C.[96]
  • Publius Cornelius Blasio, ambassador to the Carni, Istri, and Iapydes in 170 B.C., and special commissioner in 168.[97]

[edit] Cornelii Cethegi

[edit] Cornelii Merulae

[edit] Cornelii Cinnae

[edit] Cornelii Balbi

[edit] Other Cornelii During the Republic

[edit] Other Cornelii of Imperial Times

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  2. ^ George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII (1897).
  3. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  4. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  5. ^ Mika Kajava, Roman Female Praenomina: Studies in the Nomenclature of Roman Women (1994).
  6. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  7. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  8. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita v. 19.
  9. ^ Fasti Capitolini
  10. ^ Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, Saturnalia i. 6.
  11. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  12. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares iii. 7. § 5, Pro Lege Manilia 19, Epistulae ad Atticum i. 19. § 2.
  13. ^ Gaius Plinius Secundus, Naturalis Historia xviii. 3.
  14. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  15. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  16. ^ Plutarchus, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Sulla 2.
  17. ^ Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, Saturnalia i. 17.
  18. ^ Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Ars Poëtica 50.
  19. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  20. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  21. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  22. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita iii. 35, 40, 41.
  23. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Romaike Archaiologia x. 58, xi. 15, 23.
  24. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita vi. 6, 18, 22, 27, 36, 38.
  25. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica xv. 71.
  26. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita vi. 36, 42.
  27. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica xii. 53.
  28. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita iv. 23.
  29. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita iv. 49.
  30. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica xiii. 34.
  31. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita iv. 56.
  32. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica xiii. 104.
  33. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita vi. 36, 42.
  34. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  35. ^ Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX vi. 3. § 3.
  36. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  37. ^ Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum, 59.
  38. ^ Plutarchus, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Caesar 52.
  39. ^ Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Roman History xlii. 58.
  40. ^ Gaius Plinius Secundus, Naturalis Historia vii. 12, xxx. 2.
  41. ^ Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales iii. 74.
  42. ^ Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales xii. 41, xvi. 12, Historiae iv. 42.
  43. ^ Gaius Plinius Secundus, Naturalis Historia ii. 31.
  44. ^ Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales xi. 2, 4, xii. 53, xiii. 25.
  45. ^ Gaius Plinius Secundus, Naturalis Historia vii. 12, s. 14.
  46. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  47. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  48. ^ Julius Capitolinus, Antoninus Pius 8.
  49. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita ix. 4.
  50. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita x. 1.
  51. ^ Fasti Capitolini
  52. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  53. ^ Fasti Capitolini
  54. ^ Fasti Capitolini
  55. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxvii. 21.
  56. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxviii. 10, xxix. 2.
  57. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxxii. 2.
  58. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xlii. 37, 47, 49, 56, xliii. 15.
  59. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xlii. 37, 47, 49, 56.
  60. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xlv. 1.
  61. ^ Sextus Julius Frontinus, De Aquaeductu 7.
  62. ^ Florus, Epitome de T. Livio Bellorum omnium annorum DCC Libri duo iii. 19, 7.
  63. ^ Fasti Capitolini
  64. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  65. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem
  66. ^ Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX vi. 7. § 3.
  67. ^ Appianus, Bellum Civile iv. 39.
  68. ^ Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Roman History liv. 12.
  69. ^ Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Roman History
  70. ^ Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum Galba 4.
  71. ^ Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales xiv. 20.
  72. ^ Sextus Julius Frontinus, De Aquaeductu 102.
  73. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  74. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxxix. 6, 8.
  75. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xlv. 17.
  76. ^ Plutarchus, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Sulla 1.
  77. ^ Gaius Sallustius Crispus, The Conspiracy of Catiline 17.
  78. ^ Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Roman History xxxvi. 27.
  79. ^ Senec. Cons. ad Marc. 12.
  80. ^ Plutarchus, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Sulla 37.
  81. ^ Gaius Sallustius Crispus, The Conspiracy of Catiline 17, 47.
  82. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Sulla 2.
  83. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares xv. 17, Pro Sulla 31.
  84. ^ Gaius Plinius Secundus, Naturalis Historia vii. 11. s. 13.
  85. ^ Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Roman History index, lib. lv.
  86. ^ Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Roman History lviii. 20.
  87. ^ Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales vi. 15.
  88. ^ Fasti Capitolini
  89. ^ Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Roman History lxxix. 4.
  90. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxvii. 36, xl. 42.
  91. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  92. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Caecina 8.
  93. ^ Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX viii. 1, Ambustae, § 2.
  94. ^ Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Historiae i. 88, ii. 63.
  95. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  96. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxxiv. 42, 43.
  97. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xliii. 7, xlv. 13.
  98. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxxix. 32, 38, 39.
  99. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita Epitome 49.
  100. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Oratore i. 52, Brutus, 23, Epistulae ad Atticum xii. 5.
  101. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  102. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  103. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Philippicae x. 6.
  104. ^ Plutarchus, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Brutus 25.
  105. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  106. ^ T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (1952).
  107. ^ Gaius Sallustius Crispus, Hist. in Or. Lep.
  108. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis ii. 8.
  109. ^ Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum Caesar 74.
  110. ^ Plutarchus, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Caesar 1.
  111. ^ Gaius Sallustius Crispus, The Conspiracy of Catiline 17, 28.
  112. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Sulla 2, 6, 18.
  113. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares viii. 8.
  114. ^ Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum Augustus 26.
  115. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, In Verrem iii. 28, iv. 13.
  116. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  117. ^ Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Suasoriae 2, sub fin.
  118. ^ Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales vi. 29.
  119. ^ Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, Epistulae vii. 9.
  120. ^ Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales xv. 71, Historiae iii. 70, 73.
  121. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  122. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  123. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelia_(gens)"



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