The gens Aviena, occasionally written Avienia, was an obscure plebeian family at Ancient Rome. Hardly any members of this gens are mentioned in history, and the name is perhaps best known from Postumius Rufius Festus Avienus a fourth century poet and historian, who was probably descended from the Avieni through a female line. A number of Avieni are known from inscriptions.
Origin
The nomenAvienusbelongs toa class of names formed using the suffix -enus, typically derived from other gentilicia. There was a gens Avia, also known primarily from inscriptions, derived from avus, grandfather.
Praenomina
The main praenomina of the Avieni were Sextus and Titus, with a few other names receiving occasional use, including Gaius, Publius, and Quintus. All of these were very common throughout Roman history. One family of the Avieni at Ostia used Sextus alone, and were differentiated by their cognomina, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as the "fossilization" of a praenomen, which became common in imperial times.
Branches and cognomina
The Avieni do not appear to have been divided into distinct stirpes, or branches, identified by hereditary surnames. There was a family of this name at Ostia, where at least some of them were part of the shipwrights' guild, but the members of this family used distinctive personal cognomina.
Sextus Avienius Sex. f. Livianus, one of the municipal Decurions at Ostia, built a family sepulchre for himself and his wife, Annia, children, Avienia Flora, Sextus Avienius Livianus Junior, Sextus Avienius , and brothers, Sextus Avienius Agathyrsus, Sextus Avienius Nico, and Sextus Avienius Her.
Sextus Avienius Sex. f. Sex. n. Livianus Junior, son of Sextus Avienius Livianus and Annia, buried in the family sepulchre at Ostia.
Sextus Avienius Sex. f. Nico, the brother of Sextus Avienius Livianus, buried in the family sepulchre at Ostia.
Sextus Avienius Nico, named in a list of donors at Ostia, dating to AD 198.
Avienius Ɔ. l. Nicomedes, a freedman, built a tomb at Rome for his patron.
Sextus Avienius Onesiphorus, a member of the shipwrights' guild at Ostia in the beginning of the third century.
Aviena Philista, named in an inscription from Rome, dating to the first half of the first century.
Aviena Philomena, named in an inscription from Sulci, together with Sextus Avienus Calliclus.
Publius Avienus Primus, probably the former master of Aviena Fausta, named in an inscription from Rome.
Aviena Procula, dedicated a tomb at Rome to her husband, Felix, master of the imperial household.
Quintus Avienus Pudens, dedicated a tomb at Ameria, dating to the latter half of the first century, to his wife, Nonia Saturnina.
Avienus Quarte, named in a late second or third century inscription from Cumae in Campania.
Sextus Avienus Sex. l. Secundus, a freedman, and the husband of Titia Aucta, with whom he was buried at Rome, aged thirty-five.
Titus Avienus Tarentinus, buried at Rome.
Avienia Sex. l. Thaïs, a freedwoman, built a family sepulchre at Rome.
Titus Avenius Tiro, buried at Rome.
Avienia Viontilla, together with her brother, Hyginus, dedicated a tomb at Rome to their father, Julius Atticus.
Titus Avenius T. l. Zetus Eros, a freedman named in an inscription from Rome.
Avienia Sex. f. Zosime, the daughter of Sextus Avienius Zosimus, for whom she built a tomb at Ostia.
Sextus Avienius Zosimus, one of the Seviri Augustales at Ostia, buried in a tomb dedicated by his daughter, Avienia Zosime, dating to the late second or early third century.
