Popillia (gens)


The gens Popillia, sometimes written Popilia, was a plebeian family at Rome. The first of the Popillii to obtain the consulship was Marcus Popillius Laenas in 359 BC, only eight years after the lex Licinia Sextia opened that magistracy to the plebeians.

Origin

The nomen Popillius resembles other names ending in -illius and -ellius, which were generally formed directly from cognomina, but perhaps, like Poplius, it should be classified with those ending in -ilus, typically formed from other names and words ending in -ulus, which could, like Popillius, be spelled with either a single or double 'l'. This suggests that the root of the nomen is the Latin word populus, the people.

Praenomina

The chief praenomina of the Popillii were Marcus, Gaius, and Publius, all of which were among the most common names at all periods of Roman history. The other praenomina associated with the Popillii are Titus and Quintus which were also very common.

Branches and cognomina

The only distinct family of the Popillii mentioned during the Republic bore the surname Laenas, cloaked. Cicero describes the incident believed to have given rise to the cognomen: Marcus Popillius, the Flamen Carmentalis, was performing a public sacrifice in his sacerdotal cloak, or laena, when he learned of a riot occasioned by strife between the plebeians and the patrician nobility. He rushed from the sacrifice, still wearing his cloak, hoping to calm the plebeians. His descendants seem not to have shared his disposition; as the historian William Ihne put it, "the family of the Laenates was unfavourably distinguished even among the Romans for their sternness, cruelty, and haughtiness of character." The name is occasionally found as Lenas in some manuscripts of Livy. A number of Popillii are mentioned without a surname, but some of them may have belonged to the same family.

Members

Popillii Laenates