Pompeia (gens)

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus,
bust at Łazienki Park, Warsaw.

The gens Pompeia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, first appearing in history during the second century BC, and frequently occupying the highest offices of the Roman state from then until imperial times. The first of the Pompeii to obtain the consulship was Quintus Pompeius in 141 BC, but by far the most illustrious of the gens was Gnaeus Pompeius, surnamed Magnus, a distinguished general under the dictator Sulla, who became a member of the First Triumvirate, together with Caesar and Crassus. After the death of Crassus, the rivalry between Caesar and Pompeius led to the Civil War, one of the defining events of the final years of the Roman Republic.[1]

Origin

The nomen Pompeius (frequently anglicized as Pompey) is generally believed to be derived from the Oscan praenomen Pompo, equivalent to the Latin Quintus, and thus a patronymic surname. The gentilicia Pompilius and Pomponius, with which Pompeius is frequently confounded, were also derived from Pompo. The gentile-forming suffix -eius was typical of Sabine families, suggesting that the Pompeii were of Sabine or Oscan extraction.[2] Cicero describes Quintus Pompeius, the consul of 141 BC, as a man of "humble and obscure origin".[3][1]

Chase posits an alternative etymology: that Pompeius and similar names were instead derived from pompa, a procession, or a derived cognomen Pompo, meaning not "fifth", but a participant in a procession; but he concludes that all of these hypotheses are uncertain.[2]

Praenomina

The main praenomina of the Pompeii were Gnaeus, Quintus, and Sextus, each of which was used by the two main branches of the family under the Republic, as well as by other members. Individual families made use of Aulus and Marcus. All of these were common names throughout Roman history. A few Pompeii not associated with any of the major families of this gens used other praenomina.

Branches and cognomina

According to Velleius Paterculus, the Pompeii of the Republic were divided into two or three distinct families, of which two can be reconstructed with a high degree of probability. How they were related is not known. They used almost entirely different sets of praenomina, which was unusual, since as a rule certain ancestral praenomina would be used by all of the branches of a gens, although others might be unique to individual stirpes.[4][5]

Denarius of Sextus Pompeius, paternal grandfather of Pompey the Great.

The first branch to appear at Rome acquired the surname Rufus, signifying someone with red hair,[6] but it was only passed down through one line. The surname Bithynicus is also thought to have belonged to a branch of this family, although it is not certain how the name, a reference to Bithynia, was acquired, or precisely when.[5][1]

The other branch, which played a conspicuous role in the final decades of the Republic and under the early Empire, mainly used personal cognomina, such as Strabo, Magnus, Pius, and Faustulus.[5][1] Strabo, referring to someone with a pronounced squint,[7] belonged to the father of the triumvir, and is said to have been the nickname of his cook, whose proper name was Menogenes; but it then became a nickname of Pompeius, because he resembled the cook.[8][9]

Magnus, or "great", was originally an epithet of the triumvir, who won renown as a general under Sulla's command, and later on his own; his sons and some of their descendants also used the name to signify their connection to him. Pius, or "faithful", was assumed by the general's son, Sextus, to signify his filial devotion to pursue vengeance on behalf of his father and brother. Faustulus, found as a surname on the coins of a Sextus Pompeius, presumably a member of the same family, is a diminutive of Faustus, meaning "fortunate" or "lucky".[1][10]

Various surnames were borne by other Pompeii, including a number of freedmen and their descendants, but the majority of the Pompeii who lived in the time of the Republic bore no cognomen.[1]

Members

This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.

Descendants of Aulus Pompeius

Descendants of Gnaeus Pompeius

Pompeii Macri et Macrini

Family of Pompeius Trogus

Pompeii Falcones

Pompeii of imperial times

Fictional Pompeii

Footnotes

  1. Plutarch calls him Pomponius.
  2. Broughton guesses that he might be a son of the consul of 141 BC, which is not impossible, despite the gap of fifty years between their consulships; Drumann makes him the grandson, and son of the Pompeius who was tribune of the plebs in 131.
  3. This event, recalled in the proverb, "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion," attributed to Caesar, was not because Caesar himself suspected that Pompeia had intrigued with Clodius, but because, as Pontifex Maximus, the morals of his household could not be the subject of perpetual and malicious gossip.
  4. Since his father's name was Aulus, Drumann makes Bithynicus a son of the tribune of 102 BC.
  5. Velleius Paterculus erroneously calls her the mother, rather than the grandmother, of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus.
  6. This relationship is not expressly stated by any ancient authority, but Tacitus reports that Marcus Scribonius Libo Drusus was the great-grandson of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, the triumvir, the nephew of the empress Scribonia, and the cousin of Lucius and Gaius Caesar, Scribonia's grandsons.
  7. His full nomenclature was Quintus Roscius Coelius Murena Silius Decianus Vibullius Pius Julius Eurycles Herculanus Pompeius Falco. Birley traces elements of the name to three individuals: Gaius Julius Eurycles Herculanus Lucius Vibullius Pius, the "last representative of the dynasts of Sparta, who died not long after 130"; Lucius Silius Decianus, consul in AD 94, or perhaps one of his sons; and Marcus Roscius Murena Coelius, consul in 81. To this patrimony, Falco's descendants would add the names of his father-in-law, Quintus Sosius Senecio, consul in 99 and 107, and Senecio's father-in-law, Sextus Julius Frontinus, consul in 100.
  8. Like his son, he had an extremely long name due to the imperial fashion for combining the nomenclature of both paternal and maternal ancestors. Part of his name is missing, but the rest was: Quintus Pompeius [...] Bellicus Sollers Julius Acer Ducenius Proculus Rutilianus Rufinus Silius Valens Valerius Niger Claudius Fuscus Saxa Amyntianus Sosius Priscus, all of which was incorporated into his son's name, although Acer in this name should probably be amended to Aper, as given in his son's nomenclature.
  9. In full, his name was Quintus Pompeius Senecio Roscius Murena Coelius Sextus Julius Frontinus Silius Decianus Gaius Julius Eurycles Herculaneus Lucius Vibullius Pius Augustanus Alpinus Bellicius Sollers Julius Aper Ducenius Proculus Rutilianus Rufinus Silius Valens Valerius Niger Claudius Fuscus Saxa Amyntianus Sosius Priscus.
  10. Or perhaps Lucius Poppaeus Vopiscus.
  11. Gallivan indicates a gap between the consulship of Lucius Aelius Plautius Lamia Aelianus and Gaius Marius Marcellus Octavius Publius Cluvius Rufus, which expired at the end of June, 80, and that of Marcus Titius Frugi and Titus Vinicius Julianus, consuls in November and December of the same year. The Fasti Septempeda inserts three consuls between these pairs: Quintus Pompeius Trio, Sextus Neranius Capito, and Lucius Acilius Strabo. Trio would therefore seem to have been consul in July and August, either with Sextus Neranius Capito, or with a colleague whose name has been omitted from the Fasti.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 473 ("Pompeia Gens").
  2. 1 2 Chase, pp. 119, 121.
  3. Cicero, In Verrem, v. 70, Pro Murena, 7, Brutus 25, quotation from the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
  4. Velleius Paterculus, ii. 21.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Drumann, Geschichte Roms, pp. 306 ff.
  6. Chase, p. 110.
  7. Chase, p. 109.
  8. Pliny the Elder, vii. 10. s. 12.
  9. Valerius Maximus, ix. 14. § 2.
  10. Chase, p. 111.
  11. Livy, xlii. 66.
  12. Broughton, vol. II, p. 35.
  13. Appian, Bella Mithridatica, 79.
  14. Plutarch, "The Life of Lucullus", 15.
  15. Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, vi. 19.
  16. Suetonius, De Illustribus Grammaticis, 2, 15.
  17. Pliny the Elder, xxv. 2, 3.
  18. Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, vi. 1. § 25.
  19. Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, v. 11.
  20. Caesar, De Bello Gallico, v. 36.
  21. Valerius Maximus, vii. 8. § 4.
  22. Varro, Rerum Rusticarum, iii. 12.
  23. Horace, Odes, ii. 7.
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  32. Plutarch, "The Life of Tiberius Gracchus", 14.
  33. Orosius, v. 8.
  34. Cicero, Brutus, 76.
  35. Plutarch, "The Life of Marius", 17.
  36. Diodorus Siculus, xxxvi. 13.
  37. Broughton, vol. I, p. 568.
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  51. Cassius Dio, xxxvii. 45.
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  53. Cicero, Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem, iii. 2. § 3, Epistulae ad Atticum, iv. 16. § 8.
  54. Asconius Pedianus, In Ciceronis Pro Milone, passim.
  55. Cassius Dio, xl. 45, 49, 55.
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  67. 1 2 Fasti Capitolini.
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  74. Livy, Epitome, 74–79.
  75. Velleius Paterculus, ii. 20, 21.
  76. Florus, iii. 18.
  77. Orosius, v. 18.
  78. Plutarch, "The Life of Pompeius", 1, 3.
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  80. Broughton, vol. II, p. 406.
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  144. Seneca the Younger, De Brevitate Vitae, 18.
  145. Tacitus, Annales, xiv. 41.
  146. Seneca the Younger, Epistulae, 104.
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  152. PIR, vol. III, pp. 65, 66.
  153. 1 2 Gallivan, "The Fasti for A.D. 70–96", p. 202.
  154. 1 2 PIR, vol. III, p. 72.
  155. Fasti Septempeda, AE 1998, 419.
  156. Gallivan, "The Fasti for A.D. 70–96", p. 215.
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  162. Tacitus, Agricola, 44.
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Bibliography

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