Nonia (gens)

Denarius of Marcus Nonius Sufenas, 59 BC. Saturn is portrayed on the obverse while the reverse depicts Victoria crowning Roma. The legend "Sex(tus) Noni(us) Pr(aetor) L(udos) V(ictoriae) P(rimus) F(ecit)" tells that Sufenas' father, the praetor Sextus Nonius established the Ludi Victoriae Sullanae in 81 BC.

The gens Nonia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Its members first appear in history toward the end of the Republic. The first of the Nonii to obtain the consulship was Lucius Nonius Asprenas in 36 BC. From then until the end of the fourth century, they regularly held the highest offices of the Roman state.[1]

Origin

The nomen Nonius is a patronymic surname, based on the praenomen Nonus, presumably belonging to an ancestor of the gens.[2] The name is undoubtedly Latin, although the first of the Nonii to rise to prominence at Rome is said to have come from Picenum.[3] Another branch of the family seems to have come from Aesernia.[4]

Praenomina

The chief praenomina of the Nonii were Lucius, Marcus, and Publius, all of which were used by the Nonii Asprenates, while the Quinctiliani used Lucius and Sextus, the latter coming from the Quinctilii, in the maternal line. The Nonii Galli used Marcus and Gaius, while the Macrini used Marcus and Publius. Other praenomina occasionally appear among Nonii whose connection to the main branches of the family, if any, is unknown, including Aulus, Gnaeus, and Quintus. Titus is given in some sources as the earliest ancestor of the Asprenates, solely from the filiation of the consul of 36 BC, but this is very uncertain, and the name is not otherwise found among the Nonii.[5]

Branches and cognomina

The main surnames of the Nonii were Asprenas, Balbus, Gallus, Quinctilianus, and Sufenas, of which only the last two appear on coins. A few of the Nonii occur without surnames.[1] Asprenas, the name of the most prominent family of the Nonii, and Sufenas[lower-roman 1] belong to a class of cognomen apparently derived from the names of towns that can no longer be identified.[6] Balbus was a common surname, originally given to someone with a pronounced stammer,[7] while Gallus could signify either a Gaul or a cockerel.[8]

The Nonii Asprenates emerge into history in the time of Caesar. They remained prominent through the middle of the second century, and the Quinctiliani appear to have constituted a cadet branch of this family.[9] The Nonii Galli were the next family to appear, coming from the town of Aesernia,[4] in the Samnite country, where a Latin colony had been sent at the end of the Third Samnite War.[10]

Beginning in the mid-second century there is a family with the surname Macrinus, a diminutive of the cognomen Macro, a Greek name meaning "great" or "large". This family distinguished itself through military and civil service, and evidently obtained patrician rank, as Marcus Nonius Arrius Paulinus Aper was advanced to the office of praetor without having first served as tribune of the plebs.[11]

Members

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

Early Nonii

Nonii Sufenates

  • Sextus Nonius Sufenas, praetor in 81 BC, he established the Ludi Victoriae Sullanae, the games in honour of Sulla's victory. He was likely the same as Nonius who betrayed Fimbria for Sulla in 84.[18][19][20]
  • Marcus Nonius Sex. f. Sufenas, triumvir monetalis in 59 BC. As tribune of the plebs in 56, with two of his colleagues, he prevented the comitia from being held, and new consuls elected. He was tried for this action, but acquitted. He was praetor circa 52, and afterward governor of one of the eastern provinces, perhaps Crete and Cyrenaica or Macedonia.[21][22][23][20]

Nonii Strumae

  • Nonius Struma, a curule magistrate, possibly aedile, in 55 BC. He proved himself unfit for his position, causing the poet Catullus to remark sarcastically, quid est, Catulle, quid moraris emori? Sella in curuli Struma Nonius sedet.[lower-roman 2][24][25]
  • Nonius, the son of Struma, a senator who was said to possess an opal of immense value (2 million sesterces). According to Pliny, he was proscribed in 43 BC by the triumvir Antonius on account of his treasure.[26][27]
  • Nonia, daughter of the proscribed senator. She married Marcus Servilius and was the mother of Marcus Servilius Nonianus.[28]

Nonii Asprenates

Nonii Quinctiliani

Nonii Galli

  • Marcus Nonius (Gallus), great-grandfather of the general Aeserninus.[4]
  • Gaius Nonius M. f. (Gallus), grandfather of the general Aeserninus.[4]
  • Gaius Nonius C. f. M. n. (Gallus), one of the quattuorviri quinquennalis, the municipal officials of Aesernia in Samnium.[4]
  • Marcus Nonius C. f. C. n. Gallus Aeserninus, consul suffectus about 35 BC, was afterward sent against the Treveri and Germani, whom he defeated in 29. He might be the same Nonius who served under Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus during the Civil War.[58][59][4]

Nonii Balbi

Equestrian statue of Marcus Nonius M. f. M. n. Balbus, AD c.50. Originally located on the forum of Herculaneum, it is now on display in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.
  • (Marcus) Nonius Balbus, tribune of the plebs in 32 BC, vetoed a law devised by the consul Gaius Sosius, one of Antonius' supporters, which was aimed at Octavian.[60][45][61]
  • Marcus Nonius M. f. Balbus, married Viciria Archais, and was the father of Marcus Nonius Balbus, proconsul of Crete and Cyrenaica.[62]
  • Marcus Nonius M. f. M. n. Balbus, had been praetor, and subsequently proconsul of Crete and Cyrenaica. He was judicial magistrate at Herculaneum, and helped restore the city after the earthquake of AD 62. He married Volasennia Tertia.[63][62]

Nonii Macrini

Others

  • Nonia C. f., named in an inscription found on a cippus, or pedestal, in the garden of Titianus.[9]
  • Nonia Antistia, named in an inscription found on a pipe.[9]
  • Nonia Maxima, named in an inscription found on a pipe.[9]
  • Gaius Nonius C. f. Proculus, consul suffectus in an uncertain year.[56]
  • Gnaeus Nonius, an eques who was discovered wearing a sword while in a crowd around the emperor Claudius, in AD 47.[67]
  • Nonius Receptus, a centurion in the twenty-second legion, who remained loyal to the emperor Galba in AD 69. He was imprisoned and put to death by his colleagues, who had taken the side of Vitellius.[68][9]
  • Nonius Attianus, one of the delatores in the reign of Nero, was punished in AD 70, following the accession of Vespasian.[69][45]
  • Nonius Celer, helped arrange the marriage of Quintilianus, a friend of Pliny the Younger.[70]
  • Marcus Nonius M. f. Mucianus Publius Delphius Peregrinus, consul suffectus in October of AD 138. It is uncertain whether he was related to the Nonii Macrini, among whom there was Marcus Nonius Arrius Mucianus; a Publius Nonius Macrinus was quaestor in the year of Peregrinus' consulship.[56]
  • Quintus Nonius Sosius Priscus, consul in AD 149.[9]
  • Nonius Bassus, consul suffectus in an uncertain year.[4]
  • Lucius Nonius Bassus, prefect of the Cohors I Brittonum milliaria under Antoninus Pius.[4]
  • Nonius Gracchus, one of the prominent Romans whom Septimius Severus had put to death without cause.[71][4]
  • Nonia Celsa, wife of the emperor Macrinus, and mother of Diadumenian.[72][9]
  • Nonius Philippus, legatus pro praetore of Britannia Inferior in AD 242.[56]
  • Nonius Gratilianus, a minor Roman noble, was chosen to join the collegium of Beneventum in AD 257.[4]
  • Nonius Paternus, consul circa AD 279, and perhaps praefectus urbi in 281.[56]
  • Nonius Atticus, consul in AD 397.
  • Nonius Marcellus, a Latin grammarian of uncertain date,[lower-roman 3] and the author of an important treatise entitled De Compendiosa Doctrina per Litteras ad Filium, also known as De Proprietate Sermonis. The work is itself highly disorganized, but it contains numerous quotations from notable authors whose own works have been lost.[73]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Also found as Suffenas.
  2. ↑ "Why do you wait to die, O Catullus? Nonius Struma sits in the curule chair!"
  3. ↑ He may have lived at any time from the third to the fifth century, as nothing can be deduced from his style, but he mentions Apuleius and frequently borrows from Aulus Gellius, and he is quoted on multiple occasions by Priscian.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 1207 ("Nonia Gens").
  2. ↑ Chase, p. 151.
  3. ↑ Syme, pp. 63, 64.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 PIR, vol. II, p. 412.
  5. 1 2 Broughton, vol. II, p. 399.
  6. ↑ Chase, p. 113.
  7. ↑ Chase, p. 110.
  8. ↑ Chase, p. 114.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 PIR, vol. II, p. 414.
  10. ↑ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, vol. I, p. 55 ("Aesernia").
  11. 1 2 PIR, vol. II, p. 409.
  12. ↑ Appian, Bellum Civile, i. 28.
  13. ↑ Plutarch, "The Life of Marius", 29.
  14. ↑ Livy, Epitome, 69.
  15. ↑ Appian, Bella Mithridatica, 59.
  16. ↑ Appian, Bellum Civile, v. 16.
  17. ↑ Appian, Bellum Civile, v. 30.
  18. ↑ Paterculus, II, 27. § 6.
  19. ↑ Broughton, vol. II, p. 76.
  20. 1 2 Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, pp. 445, 446.
  21. ↑ Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, iv. 15. § 4, vi. 1. § 13, viii. 15. § 3.
  22. ↑ Eckhel vol. v, pp, 261, 262.
  23. ↑ Broughton, vol. II, p. 209, 243, 251, 262.
  24. ↑ Catullus, Carmina, 52.
  25. ↑ Broughton, vol. II, p. 216.
  26. ↑ Pliny the Elder, xxxvii. 6. s. 21.
  27. ↑ Broughton, vol. II, p. 493.
  28. ↑ Ronald Syme, "The Historian Servilius Nonianus", p. 409.
  29. ↑ Hirtius, De Bello Africo, 80.
  30. ↑ Caesar, De Bello Hispaniensis, 10.
  31. ↑ Broughton, vol. II, pp. 287, 298, 313, 325, 399.
  32. ↑ PIR, vol. II, p. 415.
  33. ↑ Appian, Bellum Civile, iii. 7.
  34. ↑ Broughton, vol. II, p. 325.
  35. ↑ Pliny the Elder, xxxv. 12. s. 36.
  36. ↑ Suetonius, "The Life of Augustus", 43, 56.
  37. ↑ Cassius Dio, lv. 4.
  38. ↑ Quintilian, x. 1. § 23.
  39. ↑ Cassius Dio, lvi. 22.
  40. ↑ Velleius Paterculus, ii. 120.
  41. ↑ Tacitus, Annales, i. 53, iii. 18.
  42. ↑ PIR, vol. II, pp. 409, 410.
  43. 1 2 PIR, vol. II, pp. 410, 411.
  44. ↑ PIR, vol. II, p. 410.
  45. 1 2 3 4 5 6 PIR, vol. II, p. 411.
  46. ↑ Cassius Dio, lix. 9.
  47. ↑ Frontinus, De Aquaeductu, c. 13.
  48. ↑ Josephus, xix. 1, § 13, 15.
  49. 1 2 Seneca, Controversiae, 1–4, 8, 10, 11, ff.
  50. ↑ PIR, vol. II, pp. 411, 414.
  51. ↑ Fasti Capitolini
  52. ↑ Cassius Dio, lv. 33.
  53. ↑ Eckhel, vol. v, p. 262.
  54. ↑ Fasti Ostienses
  55. ↑ Barrett, p. 81.
  56. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 PIR, vol. II, p. 413.
  57. ↑ Badel, p. 129.
  58. ↑ Cassius Dio, li. 20.
  59. ↑ Plutarch, "The Life of Cicero, 38.
  60. ↑ Cassius Dio,, L. 2.
  61. ↑ Broughton, vol. II, p. 418.
  62. 1 2 PIR, vol. II, pp. 411, 412.
  63. ↑ Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, s. v. Pompeii and Herculaneum.
  64. ↑ "Tomb of 'Gladiator' Roman general unearthed". CBC News. 2008-10-19. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  65. ↑ "Tomb of Roman general who inspired Gladiator reburied". PreHist.org - Preserving History. 2012-12-06. Archived from the original on 2013-09-27. Retrieved 2012-12-06.
  66. ↑ PIR, vol. II, pp. 408, 409.
  67. ↑ PIR, vol. II, p. 408.
  68. ↑ Tacitus, Historiae, i. 56, 59.
  69. ↑ Tacitus, Historiae, iv. 41.
  70. ↑ Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, vi. 32.
  71. ↑ Aelius Spartianus, "The Life of Septimius Severus", 13.
  72. ↑ Aelius Lampridius, "The Life of Diadumenianus".
  73. ↑ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, pp. 937, 938 ("Nonius Marcellus").

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