Cilnia (gens)

The gens Cilnia was an Etruscan family during the time of the Roman Republic. The gens is best known from Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, a trusted friend and advisor of Augustus, who was famous for his immense wealth and patronage of the arts.^[1]

Origin of the gens

The Cilnii hailed from the Etruscan town of Arretium, where they were amongst the local nobility, and may perhaps have held the kingly dignity in ancient times. Their nomen was originally written Cfelne or Cfenle, which was subsequently Latinized as Cilnius, much as the Etruscan Lecne became Licinius. The Cilnii were driven from their native town by an opposing party in 301 B.C., but were restored by the Romans, and ever afterwards were supporters of Roman interests.^[2][3]

Branches and cognomina of the gens

The only family of the Cilnii to achieve prominence bore the cognomen Maecenas, sometimes found as Maecaenas or Maecoenas. They claimed descent from Lars Porsena, the legendary king of Clusium, who played a prominent role in the early history of the Roman Republic. The name may be derived from a place, perhaps the same where the wines called the vina Maecenatiana were produced.^[4][5] On Etruscan funerary urns, the names of Cilnius and Maecenas occur separately, but never together, from which Müller concludes that these families did not unite until a later period.^[6] At Rome, the family was considered part of the equestrian order. The surnames Paetinus and Proculus are also known to have belonged to members of the Cilnii.^[7][8]

Members of the gens

• Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, an eques, who was instrumental in putting down the conspiracy of the tribune Marcus Livius Drusus in 91 B.C.; he was probably the grandfather, or perhaps the father, of the famous Maecenas.^[9]
• Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, a friend and supporter of Octavianus, afterwards the emperor Augustus, whose trusted advisor he became.

See also

• List of Roman gentes

Footnotes

1. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
2. ^ Karl Otfried Müller, Die Etrusker, i. p. 414.
3. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
4. ^ Marcus Terentius Varro, De Lingua Latina libri XXV, viii. 84, ed. Müller.
5. ^ Gaius Plinius Secundus, Historia Naturalis, xiv. 8.
6. ^ Karl Otfried Müller, Die Etrusker, i. p. 404.
7. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
8. ^ Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft.
9. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Cluentio, § 56.

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