Annia (gens)

The gens Annia was a plebeian family of considerable antiquity at Rome. The first person of this name whom Livy mentions is the Latin praetor Lucius Annius of Setia, a Roman colony in 340 BC. By the time of the Second Punic War, the Annii were obtaining minor magistracies at Rome, and in 153 BC, Titus Annius Luscus attained the consulship. The gens remained prominent at Rome through the first century. The emperor Marcus Aurelius was descended from a family of this name.^[1]

Origin

Although the earliest of the Annii was from the Volscian town of Setia, he seems to have been a Latin, and the names used by the various members of this family are consistent with a Latin origin. Whether Roman Annii were descended from this Lucius Annius is not known. At least one early Annius was from Campania, but by this time, the family was already established at Rome.^[1]

Praenomina

The main families of the Annii at Rome used the praenomina Titus, Lucius, and Gaius. The Annii Lusci preferred Titus and Gaius, while the Annii Bellieni used Lucius and Gaius. Other members of the gens used Lucius, Publius, Gaius, and Quintus.^[1]

Branches and cognomina

A number of Annii during the Republic bore no cognomen. The principal branches of the Annii were surnamed Luscus and Bellienus (or Bilienus). Luscus is derived from a word variously translated as "one-eyed", "bleary-eyed", or "partly blind". It must have been applied to an ancestor of the oldest family of the gens, and the only one to obtain the consulship at Rome. One member of this family bore the additional surname Rufus, probably in reference to his red hair. The last noteworthy member of the family became known as Milo, apparently a reference to a notorious robber in southern Italy. A variety of surnames were borne by individual Annii, including Asellus, Bassus, Cimber, Faustus, Gallus, and Pollio.^[1]

Members of the gens

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

Annii Lusci

• Titus Annius (Luscus), triumvir for the founding of colonies in Gallia Cisalpina in 218 BC, obliged by a sudden rising of the Boii to take refuge in Mutina.^[2]
• Titus Annius T. f. Luscus, sent as an envoy to Perseus in 172 BC, and triumvir for augmenting the colony at Aquileia in 169.^[3]
• Titus Annius T. f. T. n. Luscus, consul in 153 BC, an orator who opposed Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus in 133.^[4]
• Titus Annius T. f. T. n. Luscus, surnamed Rufus, consul in 128 BC.^[5]
• Gaius Annius T. f. T. n. Luscus, commander of the garrison at Leptis Magna under Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus during the Jugurthine War in 108 BC, and later sent by Lucius Cornelius Sulla against Quintus Sertorius in 81.
• Annia T. f. T. n., the wife of Gaius Papius Celsus and mother of Titus Annius Papianus Milo.^[1]
• Titus Annius Papianus Milo, tribunus plebis in 57 BC, and unsuccessfully defended by Cicero after the murder of Publius Clodius Pulcher in 52.

Annii Bellieni

• Lucius Annius C. f. Bellienus, praetor in 107 BC, served under Gaius Marius in the war against Jugurtha and Bocchus.^[6][7]
• Lucius Annius Bellienus, uncle of Catiline, ordered by Sulla to kill Quintus Lucretius Ofella, and condemned in 64 BC.^[8]
• Gaius Annius Bellienus, legate of Marcus Fonteius in Gallia Narbonensis, in 72 BC.^[9]
• Lucius Annius Bellienus, whose house was burnt down after the murder of Caesar in 44 BC.^[10]

Annii Veri

• Marcus Annius Verus, a senator of Spanish descent, and great-grandfather of the emperor Marcus Aurelius.
• Marcus Annius M. f. Verus, grandfather of Marcus Aurelius, obtained the consulship under Domitian, and again in AD 121 and 126.
• Annia M. f. M. n. Galeria Faustina, better known as Faustina Major or Faustina the Elder, aunt of Marcus Aurelius and the wife of Antoninus Pius; Roman Empress from AD 138 to 140.
• Marcus Annius M. f. M. n. Libo, uncle of Marcus Aurelius, was consul in AD 128 and 161.
• Marcus Annius M. f. M. n. Verus, father of Marcus Aurelius, died circa AD 124, leaving his children to be raised by their paternal grandfather.
• Marcus Annius M. f. M. n. Libo, son of the consul of AD 128 and 161; legatus of Syria in A.D. 162.
• Annia M. f. M. n. Fundania Faustina, daughter of the consul of AD 128 and 161; married Titus Pomponius Proculus Vitrasius Pollio, and later murdered at the orders of her cousin, the emperor Commodus.
• Marcus Annius M. f. M. n. Verus, afterwards Marcus Aurelius, emperor from AD 161 to 180.
• Annia M. f. M. n. Cornificia Faustina, sister of Marcus Aurelius.
• Annia Faustina, granddaughter of Annia Cornificia Faustina.
• Annia Aurelia Faustina, daughter of Annia Faustina, married the emperor Elagabalus.

Others

• Lucius Annius, the Latin praetor of Setia in 340 BC, demanded equality for the Latins.
• Annius, a freedman, and reportedly the father of Gnaeus Flavius, curule aedile in 304 BC.^[11][12]
• Annius, a Campanian ambassador to Rome in 216 BC, demanded that one of the consuls should henceforth be a Campanian.^[13][14]
• Lucius Annius, tribunus plebis in 110 BC, wished to continue in office the next year, but was resisted by his colleagues.^[15]
• Publius Annius, tribunus militum in 87 BC, murdered Marcus Antonius, the orator, and brought his head to Marius.^[16][17]
• Annia, the wife of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, who died in 84 BC, and afterwards of Marcus Pupius Piso Frugi Calpurnianus, whom Sulla compelled to divorce her, because of her former marriage to Cinna.^[18]
• Gaius Annius, sent into Hispania by Sulla about 82 BC. against Sertorius, whom he compelled to retire to Carthago Nova.^[19]
• Gaius (or Publius) Annius Asellus, a senator who died, leaving his only daughter as his heiress. His property was seized by the praetor Verres.^[20]
• Quintus Annius, a senator, and one of Catiline's conspirators in 63 BC.^[21]
• Gaius Annius Cimber, a supporter of Marcus Antonius in 43 BC.
• Gaius Annius Pollio, accused of majestas during the reign of Tiberius, and later an intimate friend of Nero, banished after being accused of participating in the conspiracy of Gaius Calpurnius Piso.^[22]
• Annius Faustus, a man of equestrian rank, and one of the informers (delatores) in the reign of Nero, was condemned by the Senate in AD 69, on the accusation of Vibius Crispus.^[23]
• Annius Gallus, a Roman general under the emperors Marcus Salvius Otho and Titus Flavius Vespasianus.
• Appius Annius Gallus, consul suffectus in AD 67.
• Annius Bassus, commander of a legion under Marcus Antonius Primus in AD 70.^[24]
• Appius Annius (Ap. f.) Trebonius Gallus, perhaps the son of the consul of AD 67; consul in AD 108.^[25]
• Appius Annius Ap. f. (Ap. n.) Trebonius Gallus, consul in AD 139.^[26][27] father of:
• Appius Annius Ap. f. Ap. n. Atilius Bradua, consul in AD 160.^[26][27][28]
• Appia Annia Ap. f. Ap. n. Regilla Atilia Caucidia Tertulla, better known as Aspasia Annia Regilla, daughter of the consul of AD 139, married Herodes Atticus.^[25][26]

See also

List of Roman gentes

References

1. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
2. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxi. 25.
3. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xlii. 25, xliii. 17.
4. Plutarchus, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Tiberius Gracchus 14.
5. Fasti Capitolini
6. Gaius Sallustius Crispus, Jugurthine War 104.
7. T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (1952).
8. Quintus Asconius Pedianus, in Toga Candida p. 92, ed. Orelli.
9. Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Fonteio 4.
10. Marcus Tullius Cicero, Philippicae ii. 36.
11. Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae vii. 9.
12. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita ix. 46.
13. Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX vi. 4. § 1.
14. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxiii. 6, 22.
15. Gaius Sallustius Crispus, Jugurthine War 37.
16. Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX ix. 2. § 2.
17. Appianus, Bellum Civile i. 72.
18. Marcus Velleius Paterculus, Compendium of Roman History ii. 41.
19. Plutarchus, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Sertorius 7.
20. Marcus Tullius Cicero, In Verrem i. 41 ff.
21. Gaius Sallustius Crispus, The Conspiracy of Catiline 17, 50.
22. Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales vi. 9, xv. 56, 71, xvi. 30.
23. Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Historiae ii. 10.
24. Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Historiae iii. 50.
25. Birley, The Roman government of Britain p. 112
26. Pomeroy, The murder of Regilla: a case of domestic violence in antiquity
27. Birley, The Roman government of Britain p. 114
28. de:Appius Annius Atilius Bradua

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: William Smith (1870). "Annia Gens". In Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology 1. p. 180.