Plaetoria (gens)

A denarius of the gens depicting Fortuna and Sors, a reference to the family's Praenestine origins[1]
Denarius of L. Plaetorius Cestianus commemorating the assassination of Caesar, with the head of Brutus and a "freedom cap" between two daggers marked "Ides of March"

Plaetorius was the family name (nomen) of a plebeian gens in ancient Rome.

Roman Republic

Plaetorii are noted as holding office during the Republic from the 2nd century BC through the civil wars of the 40s BC.[2] Several members of the gens issued denarii from the late 70s into the 40s,[3] one of them punning on the cognomen Cestianus by depicting an athlete holding a cestus.[4] The Cestiani branch seems to come from a Praenestine family of Cestii by adoption into the Plaetorii of Tusculum.[5] Their coinage representing Sors recognizes Praeneste as the Italic oracle most renowned for the casting of lots.[6] A Plaetorius is among the supporters of Pompeius in the civil wars of the 40s, and the best-known coinage from a member of the gens is a denarius issued for Brutus commemorating the assassination of Caesar on the Ides of March.

References

  1. P.G.P. MeyboomThe Nile Mosaic of Palestrina: Early Evidence of Egyptian Religion in Italy (Brill, 1995), p. 161.
  2. Unless otherwise noted, information on careers and citations of primary sources from T.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (American Philological Association, 1951, 1952, 1986), vols. 1–3.
  3. Michael H. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage (Cambridge University Press, 1974), pp. 83, 86–87, 408, 415, 418.
  4. Eugene S. McCartney, "Casting Puns on Ancient Monuments," American Journal of Archaeology 23 (1919), p. 62.
  5. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, p. 418, citing T.P. Wiseman, New Men of the Roman Senate, 251.
  6. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, p. 418.
  7. Censorinus, De die natali 24.3; Plautus, Epidicus 25–27; Varro, De lingua latina 6.5; Aulus Gellius 3.2.4; Broughton, MRR2, p. 472.
  8. Discussed by Broughton, MRR2, p. 472.
  9. Plaetoria, Broughton contra RE, Supb. 7.398, which has Laetoria.
  10. Cicero, De officiis 3.61 and De natura deorum 3.74; also the Lex Iulia Municipalis, line 112.
  11. Plautus, Pseudolus 303f. and Rudens 1380–1382.
  12. Broughton, MRR2, p. 472.
  13. Livy 42.26.6–7; Broughton, MRR1, p. 414. The other two ambassadors were Aulus Terentius Varro and Gaius Cicereius.
  14. Senatus consultum de Agro Pergameno, with Plattorius amended to Plaetorius; Broughton, MRR2, p. 494.
  15. Valerius Maximus 9.2.1, see also Florus 2.9.26 (without praenomen) and Orosius 5.21.8 as P. Laetorius; Broughton, MRR2, p. 494, and MRR3, p. 157.
  16. Cicero, Pro Cluentio 165.
  17. Broughton, MRR2, p. 102, and MRR3, p. 157.
  18. See also Ronald Syme, reviewing Broughton's MRR in Classical Philology 50.2 (1955), pp. 129–130, 132.
  19. Cicero, Pro Fronteio 1.
  20. On this point see also Ronald Syme, “The Sons of Crassus.” Latomus 39 (1980) 403–408.
  21. Cicero, Pro Cluentio 126.
  22. Cicero, Pro Cluentio 147, see also 126.
  23. Broughton, MRR2, pp. 161–162, conjectures this date for a praetorship based on assigning his service as a iudex to 66 and on the gap that leaves room for his name on the Fasti of Macedonia.
  24. SEG I.165 Delphi.
  25. Cicero, Ad familiares 1.8.1, where the M. Plaetorius referred to is not identified as Cestianus.
  26. Broughton, MRR2, pp. 128, 143, 150 (note 3, where he explains his reasoning for assigning years for Plaetorius's offices), 161–162, 169, 219; MRR3, p. 157.
  27. Bellum Alexandrinum 34.5; Broughton, MRR2, p. 274.
  28. Bellum Africum 96; Broughton, MRR2, p. 494.
  29. Broughton, MRR2, p. 360. Epigraphic evidence as L. Plaet(orius) Cest(ianus).
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