Safinia gens


The gens Safinia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. Few members of this gens are mentioned in history, but a number are known from inscriptions.

Origin

The nomen Safinius belongs to a class of gentilicia formed from cognomina ending in -inus. The root of the name is Safineis, cognate with the Latin Sabinus, the Oscan name for the Sabellic peoples, including the Sabines and Samnites.

Praenomina

The chief praenomina of the Safinii were Lucius, Gaius, and Marcus, the three most common names throughout all periods of Roman history. Other common praenomina were occasionally used, including Publius, Quintus, and Titus. Septimus appears in a filiation. It was quite rare as a praenomen, but a fairly common surname, in which form might have been used in the filiation instead of a praenomen.

Branches and cognomina

The Safinii of imperial times used a wide variety of personal cognomina, but a number of this gens bore the surname Rufus, or its diminutive, Rufinus, originally given to someone with red hair. At least some of these probably constituted a distinct family of the Safinii. Other surnames that might have represented stirpes of the Safinii include Sabellio, belonging to a class of surnames derived from the names of peoples and places, undoubtedly alluding to the Sabellic origin of the gens, and the meaning of its nomen gentilicium; and perhaps Primus, together with its diminutive, Primilla, a name usually signifying the eldest son in a family, although this name might have belonged to otherwise unrelated Safinii, as at least some bearing this name appear to have been freedmen.

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