The nomenFanniusbelongs to a large class of gentilicia that either originated at Rome, or cannot be shown to have come from anywhere else. Chase derives it from an obscure cognomen, Fadus.
The only distinct family of the Fannia gens during the Republic bore the cognomen Strabo, originally given to someone given to squinting. This was one of a large class of surnames derived from the physical characteristics of the bearer. Other surnames occur under the Empire, including Quadratus, "square", and Caepio, an onion, but these seem to have been personal names, since they do not appear to have been passed down to the descendants of the bearers.
Members
Fannii Strabones
Gaius Fannius Strabo, grandfather of the consul of BC 161.
Gaius Fannius C. f. Strabo, father of the consul of BC 161.
Gaius Fannius C. f. C. n. Strabo, consul in BC 161, the year that rhetoricians were expelled from Rome. Fannius proposed a sumptuary law.
Marcus Fannius Strabo, father of the historian.
Gaius Fannius M. f. C. n. Strabo, consul in BC 122. He had beentribune of the plebs, and was elected consul through the influence of Gaius Gracchus, but once in office, he supported the aristocracy and opposed the measures of Gracchus. He issued a proclamation commanding all of the Italian allies to leave Rome, and spoke against Gracchus' proposal to extend the franchise to the Latins. Fannius' speech was regarded as a masterpiece in Cicero's time.
Gaius Fannius C. f. C. n. Strabo, had been, in his youth, a soldier under Scipio Aemilianus, and together with Tiberius Gracchus, was the first to mount the walls of Carthage on the capture of the city. He became an orator, whose style was harsher than that of his cousin, the consul of 122 BC, but gained fame as the author of a history of contemporary events, which was praised by Sallust.
Others
Gaius Fannius, tribune of the people in BC 187. He asserted that neither he nor his colleagues would hinder the praetor Quintus Terentius Culleo from arresting and imprisoning Scipio Asiaticus, if he refused to pay a fine to which he had been sentenced.
Fannia, the wife of Gaius Titinius, who married her in order to gain control of her considerable property. Gaius Marius interceded on her behalf when Titinius repudiated her but attempted to rob her of her dowry, and in gratitude Fannia provided shelter for Marius when he came to Minturnae as a fugitive in 88 BC.
Gaius Fannius, an eques, who was called a frater germanus of Titinius, and had some transactions with Gaius Verres in BC 84.
Gaius Fannius Chaereas or Chaerea, a freedman of Greek extraction, whose slave was entrusted to the actor Quintus Roscius Gallus for training in his art. After the slave was murdered, Roscius obtained a farm in compensation, and Chaereas sued him for his share of the property. Roscius was defended by Cicero, who savaged Chaereas' character and appearance.
Gaius Fannius, one of the accusers of Publius Clodius Pulcher in BC 61. Two years later, he was mentioned by Lucius Vettius as an accomplice in an alleged conspiracy against Pompeius. He may be the same Fannius who went over to Sextus Pompeius in 43, and was outlawed. In 36, he deserted Pompeius and went over to Marcus Antonius.
Gaius Fannius, tribune of the people in BC 59, when he allowed himself to be used by Marcus Bibulus in opposing Caesar's agrarian law. A partisan of Pompeius, he went as praetor to Sicily in 49. The fall of Pompeius in the year after seems to have brought about the fall of Fannius also.
Fannius Quadratus, a contemporary of Horace, who speaks of him with contempt as a parasite of Tigellius Hermogenes. He was one of those envious Roman poets who tried to depreciate Horatius, because his writings threw their own into the shade.
Fannius Caepio, conspired with Murena against Augustus in BC 22. He was accused of majestas by Tiberius, and condemned by the judges in his absence, as he did not stand his trial, and was shortly afterwards put to death.
Fannia, the second wife of Helvidius Priscus, accompanied her husband into exile during the reign of Nero, and again under Vespasian. After her husband's death, she persuaded Herennius Senecio to write his biography, but following its publication, Herennius was put to death by Domitian, and Fannia sent into exile.
Gaius Fannius, a contemporary of the younger Plinius, and the author of a work on the deaths of persons executed or exiled by Nero, under the title of Exitus Occisorum aut Relegatorum. It consisted of three books, but more would have been added if Fannius had lived longer. The work seems to have been very popular at the time, both on account of its style and its subject.
