Menenia (gens)

The gens Menenia was a very ancient and illustrious patrician house at Rome from the earliest days of the Roman Republic to the first half of the 4th century BC. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Agrippa Menenius Lanatus in 503 BC. The gens eventually drifted into obscurity, although its descendants were still living in the 1st century BC.^[1]

Origin of the gens

During the first secession of the plebs in 493 BC, Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, the former consul, was despatched by the Senate as an emissary to the plebeians, who were gathered on the Mons Sacer. He said that he was sprung from the plebs, although he and several generations of his descendants held the consulship at a time when it was open only to the patricians. This suggests that the Menenii must have been made patricians, probably during the reign of one of the later Roman kings.^[2][3]

Praenomina used by the gens

The Menenii are known to have used the praenomina Agrippa, Gaius, Titus and Lucius. Together with the gens Furia, they were amongst the only patrician families to make regular use of the praenomen Agrippa, which was later revived as a cognomen in many families. For this reason, later sources frequently refer to the Menenii whose praenomen was Agrippa as Menenius Agrippa instead of the correct Agrippa Menenius.

Licinus, probably the praenomen of the consular tribune from 387 to 376 BC, was likewise a rare name, apparently derived from the Etruscan name Lecne. Like Agrippa, Licinus was later known primarily as a surname, but it is most frequently confused with the nomen Licinius, which was derived from it. Livius preserves the praenomen as Licinius, but later historians appear to have amended it to the more common praenomen Lucius.^[4][5]

Branches and cognomina of the gens

The only cognomen associated with the Menenii is Lanatus. This surname is derived from the Latin adjective, meaning "wooly", and perhaps originally referred to a person with particularly fine, curly, or abundant hair.^[6]

Members of the gens

• Gaius Menenius Lanatus, father of the consul of 503 BC.^[7]
• Agrippa Menenius C. f. Lanatus, consul in 503 BC, and emissary to the plebeians during the first secession in 493.
• Titus Menenius Agrippae f. C. n. Lanatus, consul in 477 BC, failed to intervene on behalf of the Fabii at the Battle of the Cremera.
• Agrippa Menenius Agrippae f. C. n. Lanatus, father of the consul of 452 BC.^[8]
• Titus Menenius Agrippae f. Agrippae n. Lanatus, consul in 452 BC.
• Lucius Menenius T. f. Agrippae n. Lanatus, consul in 440 BC.
• Agrippa Menenius T. f. Agrippae n. Lanatus, consul in 439 BC, and tribunus militum consulari potestate in 419 and 417 BC.
• Titus Menenius T. f. Lanatus, father of the consular tribune of 387 BC.^[9]
• Licinus Menenius T. f. T. n. Lanatus, tribunus militum consulari potestate in 387, 380, 378, and 376 BC.^[10][11][12]
• Menenius, proscribed by the triumvirs in 43 BC, but rescued from death by the self-devotion of one of his slaves.^[13]

See also

List of Roman gentes

References

1. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
2. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita ii. 32.
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. ^ Luigi Lanzi, Saggio di Lingua Etrusca (Rome, 1789), vol. ii. p. 389.
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. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
9. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
10. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, vi. 5, 27, 31.
11. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, xv. 50, 57, 71.
12. ^ Livius gives his praenomen as Licinus, apparently confusing the rare name with the common nomen gentilicum. Diodorus, apparently unfamiliar with the praenomen, amends it to Lucius, and in one passage to Gaius.
13. ^ Appianus, Bellum Civile iv. 44.

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