Cluvia (gens)

The gens Cluvia was a Roman family during the later Republic, and early imperial times. The first member of the gens to achieve prominence was Gaius Cluvius Saxula, praetor in 175 and 173 BC.^[1]

Origin of the gens

The Cluvii were of Campanian origin. The earliest member of the family appearing in history was Faucula Cluvia, a courtesan at Capua during the Second Punic War.^[2][3]

Praenomina used by the gens

The praenomina used by the Cluvii included Gaius, Spurius, and Marcus.^[4]

Branches and cognomina of the gens

The Cluvii do not appear to have been divided into distinct families. Individual members of the gens bore the personal cognomina Saxula, a little rock, and Rufus, red or reddish.^[5][6]

Members of the gens

• Faucula Cluvia, a Capuan courtesan at the time of the Second Punic War; she secretly provided food to the Roman prisoners, and when the city was captured, her liberty and property were restored by a special decree of the senate.^[7]
• Gaius Cluvius Saxula, praetor in 175 BC, and praetor peregrinus in 173.^[8]
• Spurius Cluvius, praetor in 172 BC, obtained Sardinia as his province.^[9]
• Gaius Cluvius, legate of Lucius Aemilius Paullus in Macedonia, in 168 BC.^[10]
• Gaius Cluvius, an eques, and a contemporary of Cicero, was judex in a suit between Gaius Fannius Chaerea and Quintus Flavius, about 76 BC.^[11]
• Marcus Cluvius, a wealthy banker at Puteoli, and a friend of Cicero, to whom he bequeathed part of his property.^[12]
• Gaius Cluvius, consul suffectus in 29 BC, was probably the same Cluvius appointed by Caesar to superintend the assignment of lands in Gallia Cisalpina in 45 BC, and who also seems to have been triumvir monetalis at some point.^[13][14][15]
• Marcus Cluvius Rufus, consul suffectus in AD 45, and governor of Hispania under the emperor Galba in AD 69. He subsequently joined the party of Otho, then Vitellius. He is probably the same person as the historian Cluvius Rufus.^{[16][17][18][19][20]}

See also

• List of Roman gentes

Footnotes

1. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
2. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, xxvi. 33, 34.
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. ^ D.P. Simpson, Cassell's Latin & English Dictionary (1963).
6. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
7. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, xxvi. 33, 34.
8. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, xli. 22, 33, xlii. 1.
9. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, xlii. 9, 10.
10. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, xliv. 40.
11. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Quinto Roscio Comoedo, xiv. 14-16.
12. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, vi. 2, xiii. 46, xiv. 9, Epistulae ad Familiares, xiii. 56.
13. ^ Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Roman History, lii. 42.
14. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, xiii. 7.
15. ^ Johann Caspar von Orelli, Inscriptionum Latinarum Selectarum Collectio n. 4859.
16. ^ Flavius Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae, ii. 1.
17. ^ Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum, Nero, 21.
18. ^ Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Roman History, lxiii. 14.
19. ^ Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales, xiii. 20, xiv. 2, Historiae, i. 18, ii. 65, iv. 43.
20. ^ Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, Epistulae, ix. 19. § 5.

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