Septimia gens

The gens Septimia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. The gens first appears in history towards the close of the Republic, and they did not achieve much importance until the latter half of the second century, when Lucius Septimius Severus obtained the imperial dignity.[1]

Origin

The nomen Septimius is a patronymic surname, derived from the rare Latin praenomen Septimus, originally given to a seventh child or seventh son, or to a child born in September, originally the seventh month of the Roman calendar.[2][3] Several other gentes obtained their nomina in this way, including the Quinctii from Quintus, the Sextii from Sextus, and the Octavii from Octavius.[2]

Praenomina

The chief praenomina of the Septimii were Publius, Lucius, Gaius, and Titus. There are a few instances of other names, including Aulus, Marcus, and Quintus. The ancestor of the family must have been named Septimus, although none of the members who are known to history bore this praenomen.

Branches and cognomina

The Septimii of the Republic were not clearly divided into separate families. A number of surnames are found at various periods, of which the most notable are Severus, meaning "stern, serious, severe," Aper, a wild boar, and Geta, referring to one of the Getae, a Thracian people.[4][5] All three cognomina were associated with the imperial family. They were of equestrian rank, and had probably lived in Leptis Magna for some time, for Statius addressed one of his poems to a certain Septimius Severus of that city.[6][7]

Members

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

• Titus Septimius Sabinus, curule aedile at some point following the consulship of Lucullus in 74 BC.[8]
• Publius Septimius Scaevola, a senator, who was one of the judges allegedly bribed by Aulus Cluentius Habitus in order to obtain the condemnation of Statius Albius Oppianicus in 74 BC. Septimius was condemned two years later, ostensibly on a charge of repetundae, or extortion, but probably due instead to his actions during the trial of Oppianicus.[9]
• Septimius, a participant in the conspiracy of Catiline, who was sent into the ager Picenus in 63 BC.[10]
• Lucius Septimius, a centurion in the command of Pompeius in 67 BC, during the war against the pirates. He then went to Egypt, where he served under Aulus Gabinius, and remained as part of a garrison supporting Ptolemy XII Auletes and his successors. When Pompeius fled to Egypt after the Battle of Pharsalia, in 48 BC, Septimius slew his old commander.[11][12][13][14]
• Gaius Septimius, a secretary of the consul Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, in 59 BC.[15]
• Publius Septimius, gave evidence against Lucius Valerius Flaccus in 59 BC.[16]
• Gaius Septimius, as praetor in 57 BC, supported recalling Cicero from exile. He was an augur in 45 BC.[17]
• Publius Septimius, had served as quaestor under Marcus Terentius Varro, who sent him three volumes of his treatise De Lingua Latina. Vitruvius speaks of him in connection with Varro, indicating that this Septimius is probably the author of two books on architecture.[18][19]
• Septimia, the wife of Sicca, a friend of Cicero.[20]
• Septimius, proscribed by the Second Triumvirate in 43 BC, as his wife was carrying on an affair with one of Antonius' friends. Not realizing his wife's treachery, Septimius fled to her house, where she detained him until his murderers arrived.[21]
• Septimius, a friend of Augustus, and of the poet Horace, who dedicated one of his odes to Septimius.[22][23]
• Septimius, one of a number of centurions slain in a soldiers' revolt in Germania, following the death of Augustus. He appealed to the legate, Aulus Caecina, for protection, but the soldiers were so insistent on Septimius' fate that the legate eventually yielded to their demands.[24]
• Septimius, a soldier in the Praetorian Guard who attempted to protect the praetorian prefect Nymphidius Sabinus from harm when his men deserted him, and declared their allegiance to Galba in AD 68. Septimius deflected a lance aimed at Nymphidius with his shield, but when other soldiers attacked, the prefect fled for his life, until he was cut down by his pursuers.[25]
• Aulus Septimius Serenus, a lyric poet, of whom only brief fragments are preserved. His subject matter appears to have consisted largely of rural topics.[26][27][28][29][30][31]
• Gaius Septimius Vegetus, governor of Egypt from AD 85 to 88.[32]
• Quintus Septimius Romanus, the author of a Latin translation of the Dictys Cretensis, a history of the Trojan War, ostensibly written either in Phoenician, or in Greek using the Phoenician alphabet, and translated into ordinary Greek during the reign of Nero.[33]
• Lucius Septimius Flaccus, consul suffectus in AD 183.[34]
• Septimius, said by Aelius Lampridius to have written a life of Alexander Severus, which he treated as an authority for his own biography of the emperor.[35]
• Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, an early Christian writer, who exposited the doctrine of the Trinity.[36]

Septimii Apri, Severi et Getae

• Marcus Septimius Aper, probably the great-grandfather of Lucius Septimius Severus, the emperor.[37][38]
• Septimius Severus, a wealthy eques at Leptis Magna in Africa Proconsularis, to whom Statius addressed one of his poems. He is probably the Lucius Septimius Severus who was sufet and duumvir at Leptis Magna.[6][7]
• Lucius Septimius (M. f.) Severus, grandfather of the emperor Septimius Severus, sufet and subsequently duumvir of Leptis Magna during the reign of Trajan.[39][40]
• Gaius Claudius Septimius Aper or Afer, probably the brother of the duumvir Lucius Septimius Severus.[41]
• Publius Septimius L. f. M. n. Geta, father of the emperor Septimius Severus.[42][43][44][45]
• Septimia L. f. M. n. Polla, a sister of Publius Septimius Geta, and aunt of the emperor Septimius Severus. She never married, but her brother set up a silver statue in her honour.[46]
• Publius Septimius Aper, probably a cousin of the emperor Septimius Severus,[i] was consul suffectus in July of AD 153.[47][48][49]
• Gaius Septimius C. f. Severus, a cousin of the emperor Septimius Severus, and perhaps the son of Gaius Claudius Septimius Aper, was consul suffectus in AD 160.[50]
• Lucius Septimius P. f. L. n. Severus, emperor from AD 193 to 211.[51][52][53][54][55][56]
• Publius Septimius P. f. L. n. Geta, brother of the emperor Septimius Severus, was consul suffectus about AD 191, and ordinarius in 203. He seems to have died during or shortly after the end of his consulship. On his deathbed, he warned his brother of the treachery of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, the praetorian prefect.[57][58]
• Septimia P. f. L. n. Octavilla, sister of the emperor Septimius Severus. She may have been the mother of Lucius Flavius Septimius Aper Octavianus, whose career is detailed in an early third-century inscription from Rome, on a monument set up by his daughter, Flavia Neratia Septimia Octavilla.[59][60]
• Lucius or Gaius Septimius Severus Aper, a native of Leptis Magna, and probably the grandson of Publius Septimius Aper, consul in AD 153, was consul in 207. He is probably same person known as Afer in the Historia Augusta, described as a cousin of the emperor Caracalla, who abruptly ordered his execution at the end of 211 or 212.[61][46][62]
• (Lucius) Septimius L. f. P. n. Bassianus, better known as Caracalla, was emperor with his father Septimius Severus from AD 198 to 211, with his brother Geta from 209 to 212, and sole emperor from 212 to 217.[63]
• Publius Septimius L. f. P. n. Geta, the emperor's younger son, was elevated to the rank of Augustus emperor alongside his father, from AD 209 to 211, and then his brother Caracalla from 211 to 212, when he was murdered on his brother's orders.[64]
• Lucius Septimius (Severus), probably the son of Aper or Afer, the ex-consul put to death by Caracalla, and the grandfather of Septimius Bassus.
• Lucius Septimius L. f. Severus, the father of Septimius Bassus, the praefectus urbi.
• Septimius L. f. L. n. Bassus, praefectus urbi from at least 317 to 319.[65]

See also

• List of Roman gentes

Notes

1. The Historia Augusta calls him the emperor's patruus, his paternal uncle.

References

1. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 784 ("Septimia Gens").
2. Chase, pp. 150, 151.
3. Petersen, pp. 347, 348.
4. Chase, pp. 111, 114.
5. Cassell's Latin and English Dictionary, s.v. severus.
6. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 806 ("L. Septimius Severus").
7. Statius, Silvae, iv. 5, praefatio.
8. Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, xxxiv. 8. s. 19. § 35.
9. Cicero, In Verrem, Act. i. 13, Pro Cluentio, 41.
10. Sallust, The Conspiracy of Catiline, 27.
11. Cassius Dio, xlii. 3, 4, 38.
12. Caesar, De Bello Civili, iii. 104.
13. Plutarch, "The Life of Pompeius", 78.
14. Appian, Bellum Civile, ii. 84.
15. Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, ii. 24.
16. Cicero, Pro Flacco, 4, 35.
17. Cicero, Post Reditum in Senatu, 9, Epistulae ad Atticum, xii. 13, 14.
18. Varro, De Lingua Latina, v. 1, vii. 109, ed. Müller.
19. Vitruvius, De Architectura, vii. praefatio, p. 194, ed. Bipontina.
20. Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, xiv. 11.
21. Appian, Bellum Civile, iv. 23.
22. Horace, Carmen Saeculare, ii. 6, Epistulae, i. 9.
23. Suetonius, "The Life of Horatius".
24. Tacitus, Annales, i. 32.
25. Plutarch, "The Life of Galba", 14.
26. Terentianus, p. 2427 (ed. Putschius).
27. Servius, Ad Virgilii Aeneidem, ii. 15.
28. Jerome, "Epistula ad Paulinum", 7.
29. Sidonius Apollinaris, "Epistula ad Polem. Carm. ix. ad Fel."
30. Wernsdorf, Poëtae Latini Minores, vol. ii, pp. 247, 279.
31. Anthologia Latina, i. 27, iii. 57, 191, 192 (ed. Meyer).
32. Bastianini, "Lista dei prefetti d'Egitto", p. 277.
33. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, pp. 1002–1004 ("Dictys Cretensis").
34. CIL VI, 2099.
35. Lampridius, "The Life of Alexander Severus", 17, 48.
36. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, pp. 1006–1012 ("Tertullianus").
37. Birley, Septimius Severus, pp. 218 ff.
38. Birley, Septimius Severus, Appendix B, No. 23.
39. Reynolds & Ward-Perkins, Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania, 412.
40. Birley, Septimius Severus, Appendix B, No. 26.
41. Birley, Septimius Severus, Appendix B, No. 16.
42. Aelius Spartianus, Septimius Severus, 1.
43. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, viii. 19493.
44. Birley, Septimius Severus, Appendix B, No. 20.
45. PIR, S. 328.
46. Birley, p. 214.
47. CIL II, 2008.
48. Birley, Septimius Severus, Appendix B, No. 15.
49. PIR, S. 319.
50. Birley, Septimius Severus, Appendix B, No. 25.
51. Cassius Dio, lxxiv–lxxvi.
52. Herodian, ii–iii.
53. Spartianus, "The Life of Septimius Severus".
54. Eutropius, viii.
55. Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus, xx.
56. Orosius, vii. 17.
57. Birley, Septimius Severus, Appendix B, No. 21.
58. PIR, S. 326.
59. CIL VI, 31648.
60. Birley, Septimius Severus, Appendix B, Nos. 8, 9, 17.
61. Spartianus, "The Life of Caracalla", 3.
62. PIR, S. 311.
63. Spartianus, "The Life of Caracalla".
64. Spartianus, "The Life of Geta".
65. PLRE, vol. I, p. 157.

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