Ninnia (gens)

The gens Ninnia was a plebeian family at Rome. Members of the gens first appear at Capua during the Second Punic War, and are found at Rome towards the end of the Republic.^[1]

Origin of the gens

The Ninnii appear to have been of Campanian origin. Two brothers of this family hosted Hannibal when he entered the city of Capua in 216 B.C., in the aftermath of the Battle of Cannae. The historian Titus Livius identifies them as members of the noble Capuan house of the Ninnii Celeres.^[2]

Praenomina used by the gens

The Ninnii Celeres used the Oscan praenomina Sthenius and Pacuvius. A branch of the family at Rome in the 1st century BC used the Latin praenomen Lucius.

Branches and cognomina of the gens

Two cognomina of the gens are known from Republican times: Celer, which means "swift", belonged to a family of the Ninnii at Capua during the Second Punic War. The surname Quadratus is found amongst the Ninnii at Rome in the time of Cicero.^[3]

Members of the gens

• Sthenius Ninnius Celer, a Capuan nobleman, who hosted Hannibal after he entered the city in 216 B.C.^[4][5]
• Pacuvius Ninnius Celer, brother of Sthenius, and also Hannibal's host; he is sometimes confused with Pacuvius Calavius.^[6][7]
• Lucius Ninnius Quadratus, tribune of the plebs in 58 B.C., a warm friend of Cicero.
• Ninnius Crassus, said to have translated the Iliad into Latin verse; his name appears in Priscianus, but there is a possibility that it is corrupt.^[8][9]

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, xxiii. 8.
3. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
4. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, xxiii. 8.
5. ^ Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft.
6. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, xxiii. 8.
7. ^ Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft.
8. ^ Priscianus Caesariensis, Institutiones Grammaticae, ix. p. 866, ed. Putschius.
9. ^ Johann Christian Wernsdorf, Poëtae Latini Minores, vol. iv. p. 569.

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