Genucia (gens)


The gens Genucia was a prominent family of the Roman Republic. It was probably of patrician origin, but most of the Genucii appearing in history were plebeian. The first of the Genucii to hold the consulship was Titus Genucius Augurinus in 451 BC.

Origin

The Genucii have traditionally been regarded as a gens with both patrician and plebeian branches, in part because they held consulships in 451 and 445 BC, when the office is generally supposed to have been closed to the plebeians. But in support of the argument that Titus Genucus Augurinus, the consul of 451, was a plebeian, it has been noted that several other consuls in the decades preceding the decemvirate bore names that in later times were regarded as plebeian. Further, Diodorus Siculus gives the consul's name as Minucius. But Livy, Dionysius, and the Capitoline Fasti all give Genucius, and the same man is supposed to have been one of the first college of decemvirs; all of the other decemvirs that year were patricians. If the consulship were not absolutely closed to the plebeians before the decemvirate, all historical sources agree that it was when Marcus Genucius was consul in 445.
Plebeian Genucii appear as early as 476 BC, when a Titus Genucius was Tribune of the Plebs. If the gens was originally patrician, then the plebeian Genucii may have arisen as the result of intermarriage with the plebeians, or because some of the Genucii were expelled from the patriciate or voluntarily chose to become plebeians. Throughout the history of the Republic, these Genucii were renowned as representatives of and advocates for the rights of the plebeian order.

Praenomina

The Genucii of the Republic favoured the praenomina Lucius, Titus, Marcus, and Gnaeus, all of which were very common throughout Roman history.

Branches and cognomina

The surnames of the Genucii under the Republic included Aventinensis, Augurinus, Cipus or Cippus, and Clepsina.
Augurinus, also the name of a family in the Minucia gens, is derived from the priestly occupation of an augur, although it cannot be determined whether the family acquired this name because one of its ancestors was an augur, or because he resembled one in some respect. The Genucii Augurini were the oldest family of the Genucii, and are generally believed to have been patricians, as two of them held the consulship before it was open to the plebeians; but the Capitoline Fasti give Augurinus as the surname of Gnaeus Genucius, one of the consular tribunes of 399 and 396 BC, who was a plebeian, according to Livy. This apparent inconsistency would be avoided if the Fasti mistakenly assigned him the surname Augurinus instead of Aventinensis, which was the name of a plebeian family of the Genucii. Alternatively, some of the Genucii Augurini may have gone over to the plebeians, as the Minucii Augurini appear to have done.
The surname Aventinensis indicates one who lived on the Aventine Hill, one of the Seven Hills of Rome. The Aventinenses appear in the middle of the fourth century BC, and might have been descended from the Augurini, if Gnaeus Genucius Augurinus, the consular tribune, were the grandfather of Lucius Genucius Aventinensis, consul in BC 365 and 362. In this case, the consular tribune must have had a brother, Marcus, whose son or grandson was consul in 363.
The Clepsinae are described as patricians in the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, but since the two known members of that name were consuls with a patrician colleague in 271 and 270, they must have been plebeian. They might have been descended from the Aventinenses, since the two Clepsinae share the filiation "L. f. L. n."; they could have been the sons of Lucius Genucius Aventinensis, consul in 303 BC.

Members

Genucii Augurini