Pompeia gens


The gens Pompeia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, first appearing in history during the second century BC, and frequently occupying the highest offices of the Roman state from then until imperial times. The first of the Pompeii to obtain the consulship was Quintus Pompeius in 141 BC, but by far the most illustrious of the gens was Gnaeus Pompeius, surnamed Magnus, a distinguished general under the dictator Sulla, who became a member of the First Triumvirate, together with Caesar and Crassus. After the death of Crassus, the rivalry between Caesar and Pompeius led to the Civil War, one of the defining events of the final years of the Roman Republic.

Origin

The nomen Pompeius is generally believed to be derived from the Oscan praenomen Pompo, equivalent to the Latin Quintus, and thus a patronymic surname. The gentilicia Pompilius and Pomponius, with which Pompeius is frequently confounded, were also derived from Pompo. The gentile-forming suffix was typical of Sabine families, suggesting that the Pompeii were of Sabine or Oscan extraction. Cicero describes Quintus Pompeius, the consul of 141 BC, as a man of "humble and obscure origin".
Chase posits an alternative etymology: that Pompeius and similar names were instead derived from pompa, a procession, or a derived cognomen Pompo, meaning not "fifth", but a participant in a procession; but he concludes that all of these hypotheses are uncertain.

Praenomina

The main praenomina of the Pompeii were Gnaeus, Quintus, and Sextus, each of which was used by the two main branches of the family under the Republic, as well as by other members. Individual families made use of Aulus and Marcus. All of these were common names throughout Roman history. A few Pompeii not associated with any of the major families of this gens used other praenomina.

Branches and cognomina

According to Velleius Paterculus, the Pompeii of the Republic were divided into two or three distinct families, of which two can be reconstructed with a high degree of probability. How they were related is not known. They used almost entirely different sets of praenomina, which was unusual, since as a rule certain ancestral praenomina would be used by all of the branches of a gens, although others might be unique to individual stirpes.
of Sextus Pompeius, paternal grandfather of Pompey the Great.
The first branch to appear at Rome acquired the surname Rufus, signifying someone with red hair, but it was only passed down through one line. The surname Bithynicus is also thought to have belonged to a branch of this family, although it is not certain how the name, a reference to Bithynia, was acquired, or precisely when.
The other branch, which played a conspicuous role in the final decades of the Republic and under the early Empire, mainly used personal cognomina, such as Strabo, Magnus, Pius, and Faustulus. Strabo, referring to someone with a pronounced squint, belonged to the father of the triumvir, and is said to have been the nickname of his cook, whose proper name was Menogenes; but it then became a nickname of Pompeius, because he resembled the cook.
Magnus, or "great", was originally an epithet of the triumvir, who won renown as a general under Sulla's command, and later on his own; his sons and some of their descendants also used the name to signify their connection to him. Pius, or "faithful", was assumed by the general's son, Sextus, to signify his filial devotion to pursue vengeance on behalf of his father and brother. Faustulus, found as a surname on the coins of a Sextus Pompeius, presumably a member of the same family, is a diminutive of Faustus, meaning "fortunate" or "lucky".
Various surnames were borne by other Pompeii, including a number of freedmen and their descendants, but the majority of the Pompeii who lived in the time of the Republic bore no cognomen.

Members