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The gens (plural gentes) was a Roman family, of Italic or Etruscan origins, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. It was an important social and legal structure in early Roman history. [1] [2] The distinguishing characteristic of a gens was the nomen gentilicium, or gentile name.
Italy has the largest collection of surnames (cognomi) of any country in the world, with over 350,000. [6] [7] Men—except slaves—in ancient Rome always had hereditary surnames, i.e., nomen (clan name) and cognomen (side-clan name). However, the multi-name tradition was lost by the Middle Ages.
In ancient Rome, a gens (/ ɡ ɛ n s / or / dʒ ɛ n z /, Latin:; pl.: gentes [ˈgɛnteːs]) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same nomen gentilicium and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of gens, sometimes identified by a distinct cognomen, was called a stirps (pl.: stirpes).
Another gens also used the Longo name in Rome, the Atilia gens, which had 19 consuls as well as patrician and plebeian branches. Athilius, one of the first three consular tribunes , elected in 444 B.C., Sulpitius and Duilio, who held the same office respectively in 390 and 339 B.C., are notable individuals.
Over centuries, a gens could expand from a single family to a large clan, potentially including hundreds or even thousands of members. Some of these may have been the descendants of freedmen or persons who entered the gens through adoption , while in other cases, different families that had assumed the same nomen in the distant past became ...
Gentes is the plural of gens (clan), a group of people who shared a family name . See also List of Roman gentes Subcategories. This category has the following 3 ...
The gens Laelia was a plebeian family at Rome. The first of the gens to obtain the consulship was Gaius Laelius in 190 BC. [1] Branches and cognomina
The gens Porcia, rarely written Portia, was a plebeian family at Ancient Rome. Its members first appear in history during the third century BC. The first of the gens to achieve the consulship was Marcus Porcius Cato in 195 BC, and from then until imperial times, the Porcii regularly occupied the highest offices of the Roman state. [2]