Saltia gens

Last updated February 20, 2019

The gens Saltia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Hardly any members of this gens are mentioned in history, but others are known from inscriptions.^[1]

The plebs were, in ancient Rome, the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census. The precise origins of the group and the term are unclear, though it may be that they began as a limited political movement in opposition to the elite (patricians) which became more widely applied.

In historiography, ancient Rome is Roman civilization from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, encompassing the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire until the fall of the western empire. The civilization began as an Italic settlement in the Italian peninsula, dating from the 8th century BC, that grew into the city of Rome and which subsequently gave its name to the empire over which it ruled and to the widespread civilisation the empire developed. The Roman empire expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world, though still ruled from the city, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants and covering 5.0 million square kilometres at its height in AD 117.

In ancient Rome, a gens, plural gentes, was a family consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps. The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the period of the Roman Republic. Much of an individual's social standing depended on the gens to which he belonged. Certain gentes were considered patrician, others plebeian, while some had both patrician and plebeian branches. The importance of membership in a gens declined considerably in imperial times.

Origin

The nomen Saltius might be derived from the Latin saltare, to dance. The nomen Saltorius was derived from the related saltor, a dancer.^[2] Alternatively, Saltius might be derived from saltus, a glade or ravine.^[3]

Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, and ultimately from the Phoenician alphabet.

Members

Sextus Saltius, together with Lucius Considius, one of the commissioners appointed to establish a colony at Capua in 83 BC. Cicero described their conduct as arrogant, and ridiculed them for their errors.^[4]
Publius Saltius Mysticus, probably a freedman, was a friend of Lucius Aelius Macer, one of the Seviri Augustales at Patavium in Venetia and Histria.^[5]
Saltia Euthycia, probably a freedwoman, one of the friends of Lucius Aelius Macer, named in his funerary inscription.^[5]
Gaius Saltius Victor, a soldier in the third legion, stationed at Lambaesis in Numidia in AD 173.^[6]

Colonia (Roman) Roman outpost established in conquered territory to secure it

A Roman colonia was originally a Roman outpost established in conquered territory to secure it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of a Roman city.

Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km (16 mi) north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, orator, lawyer and philosopher, who served as consul in the year 63 BC. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.

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References

↑ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 700 ("Sextus Saltius").
↑ Chase, p. 131.
↑ New College Latin & English Dictionary, s. v. salto, saltus.
↑ Cicero, De Lege Agraria, ii. 34.
1 2 CIL V, 2844.
↑ CIL VIII, 18068.

Bibliography

Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Lege Agraria contra Rullum.
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology , William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
Theodor Mommsen et alii, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated CIL), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–present).
George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII, pp. 103–184 (1897).
John C. Traupman, The New College Latin & English Dictionary, Bantam Books, New York (1995).

The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 pages. It is a classic work of 19th-century lexicography. The work is a companion to Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities and Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography.

Sir William Smith was an English lexicographer. He also made advances in the teaching of Greek and Latin in schools.

Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He was one of the greatest classicists of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902 for being "the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A History of Rome", after having been nominated by 18 members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. He was also a prominent German politician, as a member of the Prussian and German parliaments. His works on Roman law and on the law of obligations had a significant impact on the German civil code.

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[1] Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 700 ("Sextus Saltius").

[2] Chase, p. 131.

[3] New College Latin & English Dictionary, s. v. salto, saltus.

[4] Cicero, De Lege Agraria, ii. 34.

[CIL_5_2844-5] 1 2 CIL V, 2844.

[6] CIL VIII, 18068.