Opsidia (gens)


The gens Opsidia or Obsidia was a minor plebeian family at Rome. Few members of this gens are known to have held any magistracies, but several are found in inscriptions.

Origin

The nomen Opsidius belongs to a class of gentilicia formed from other names using the suffix -idius. In this case the nomen is derived from the more common Opsius; the same nomen also gives rise to the gens Opsilia. The common root of all three nomina is op-, "help", found in the name of the goddess Ops, as well as the praenomen Opiter, and the derived patronymics Opiternius and Opetreius, and the nomen Oppius.
Most of these names are thought to be of Sabine or Samnite origin, and in some writers we find the nomen Obsidius, apparently an orthographic variation of Opsidius, among the Frentani, a Samnite people. At a later period, a Roman traveler of this name is said to have discovered the type of volcanic rock now known as Obsidian, which became highly fashionable at Rome.

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