Aurelia gens


The gens Aurelia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, which flourished from the third century BC to the latest period of the Empire. The first of the Aurelian gens to obtain the consulship was Gaius Aurelius Cotta in 252 BC. From then to the end of the Republic, the Aurelii supplied many distinguished statesmen, before entering a period of relative obscurity under the early emperors. In the latter part of the first century, a family of the Aurelii rose to prominence, obtaining patrician status, and eventually the throne itself. A series of emperors belonged to this family, through birth or adoption, including Marcus Aurelius and the members of the Severan dynasty.
In 212, the Constitutio Antoniniana of Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all free residents of the Empire, resulting in vast numbers of new citizens who assumed the nomen Aurelius, in honour of their patron, including several emperors: seven of the eleven emperors between Gallienus and Diocletian bore the name "Marcus Aurelius". So ubiquitous was the name in the latter centuries of the Empire that it suffered abbreviation, as Aur., and it becomes difficult to distinguish members of the Aurelian gens from other persons bearing the name.

Origin

The nomen Aurelius is usually connected with the Latin adjective aureus, meaning "golden", in which case it was probably derived from the color of a person's hair. However, Festus reports that the original form of the nomen was Auselius, and that the medial 's' was replaced by 'r' at a relatively early period; the same process occurred with the archaic nomina Fusia, Numisia, Papisia, Valesia, and Vetusia, which became Furia, Numeria, Papiria, Valeria, and Veturia in classical Latin. According to Festus, Auselius was derived from a Sabine word for the sun.

Praenomina

All of the praenomina used by the chief families of the Aurelii were common throughout Roman history. The Aurelii of the Republic primarily used Gaius, Lucius, Marcus, and Publius, to which the Aurelii Orestides added Gnaeus. The Aurelii Fulvi of imperial times used Titus, Marcus, and Lucius, while the Aurelii Symmachi used Quintus and Lucius.

Branches and cognomina

There were three main stirpes of the Aurelii in republican times, distinguished by the cognomina Cotta '', Orestes, and Scaurus. Cotta and Scaurus appear on coins, together with a fourth surname, Rufus, which does not occur among the ancient writers. A few personal cognomina are also found, including Pecuniola, apparently referring to the poverty of one of the Aurelii during the First Punic War.
Cotta, the surname of the oldest and most illustrious branch of the Aurelii under the Republic, probably refers to a cowlick, or unruly shock of hair; but its derivation is uncertain, and an alternative explanation might be that it derives from a dialectical form of cocta, literally "cooked", or in this case "sunburnt". Marcus Aurelius Cotta, moneyer in 139 BC, minted an unusual denarius, featuring Hercules in a biga driven by centaurs, presumably alluding to some mythological event connected with the gens, but the exact symbolism is unknown. The Aurelii Cottae were prominent from the First Punic War down to the time of Tiberius, after which they faded into obscurity. The last of this family appearing in history include Marcus Aurelius Cotta Maximus Messalinus, a friend of Tiberius, who squandered his family fortune through reckless prodigality, and his son, who received a stipend from Nero in order to maintain his household in a manner befitting his illustrious forebears. The Cottae were related to Julius Caesar and Augustus through Aurelia Cotta, who was Caesar's mother.
The Aurelii Scauri were a relatively small family, which flourished during the last two centuries of the Republic. Their surname, Scaurus, belongs to a common class of cognomina derived from an individual's physical features, and referred to someone with swollen ankles.
Orestes, the surname of a family that flourished for about a century toward the end of the Republic, was a Greek name, and belonged to a class of surnames of foreign origin, which appear during the middle and late Republic. In Greek mythology, Orestes was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and avenged his father's murder by slaying his own mother, and after escaping the judgment of the Erinyes, became king of Mycenae. The circumstances by which the name became attached to a branch of the Aurelii are unclear, but perhaps allude to some heroic deed, or military service in Greece.
The Aurelii Fulvi, who rose to prominence in imperial times, originally came from Nemausus in Gallia Narbonensis. Titus Aurelius Fulvus, the first of the family to attain the consulship, was made a patrician about AD 73 or 74. In the second century, the Aurelii Fulvi obtained the Empire itself, when the consul's grandson, Titus Aurelius Fulvus, was adopted as the successor to Hadrian, becoming the emperor Antoninus Pius. Most of the emperors who followed were born or adopted into the gens, through the end of the Severan dynasty. The surname Fulvus was a common surname, referring to someone with yellowish, yellow-brown, tawny, or strawberry blond hair.
The Aurelii Galli were a family that achieved notability during the second century, attaining the consulship on at least three occasions. Their surname, Gallus'', had two common derivations, referring either to a cockerel, or to a Gaul. In the latter case, it might indicate that the first of this family was of Gallic descent, that he was born in Gaul, that he had performed some noteworthy deed in Gaul, or that in some manner he resembled a Gaul.
The Aurelii Symmachi were one of the last great families of the western empire, holding the highest offices of the Roman state during the fourth and fifth centuries. The Symmachi were regarded as members of the old Roman aristocracy, and acquired a reputation for their wisdom and learning.

Members

Aurelii Cottae

Aurelii Scauri

Aurelii Orestides

  • Lucius Aurelius L. f. L. n. Orestes, consul in 157 BC.
  • Lucius Aurelius L. f. L. n. Orestes, consul in 126 BC, was sent against the Sardinians, over whom he triumphed in 122. Gaius Gracchus and Marcus Aurelius Scaurus served under his command. Orestes and his brother, Gaius, were orators mentioned in passing by Cicero.
  • Gaius Aurelius L. f. L. n. Orestes, and his brother, Lucius, were orators briefly mentioned by Cicero.
  • Lucius Aurelius L. f. L. n. Orestes, consul in 103 BC, with Gaius Marius as his colleague. Orestes died during his year of office.
  • Gnaeus Aurelius Orestes, praetor urbanus in 77 BC, issued a decision that was appealed to the consul Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus. Lepidus sustained the appeal, negating Orestes' decision. Broughton identifies him with the consul of 71.
  • Gnaeus Aurelius Cn. f. Orestes, adopted by Gnaeus Aufidius, the historian, assuming the name of Gnaeus Aufidius Orestes. After he failed to win election as tribune of the plebs, he succeeded in obtaining the consulship for 71 BC. Cicero, however, suggests that his election was due largely to the lavish gifts that he distributed among the people.
  • Aurelia Orestilla, the second wife of Catiline, who reputedly slew his grown son in order to overcome her objection to their marriage. According to Cicero's correspondent, Marcus Caelius Rufus, Aurelia's daughter was betrothed to Quintus Cornificius.

Aurelii Fulvi

Aurelii Galli

  • Lucius Aurelius Gallus, consul suffectus in an uncertain year between AD 128 and 133.
  • Lucius Aurelius Gallus, consul suffectus Ex. Kal. Jul. in AD 146.
  • Lucius Aurelius Gallus, consul in AD 174.
  • Lucius Aurelius Gallus, consul in AD 198.
  • Lucius Aurelius Gallus, governor of Moesia Inferior from AD 201 to about 204.

Aurelii Symmachi

Others

  • Publius Aurelius Pecuniola, a kinsman of the consul Gaius Aurelius Cotta, under whom he served during the siege of Lipara in 252 BC. As a result of his negligence, his camp was set on fire, and nearly captured. As a punishment, Pecuniola was scourged, and demoted to the rank of legionary.
  • Lucius Aurelius, quaestor urbanus in 196 BC.
  • Aurelius Opilius, a freedman who became a philosopher, rhetorician, and grammarian, and a friend of Publius Rutilius Rufus, whom he accompanied into exile at Smyrna, around 92 BC.
  • Aurelius Cornelius Celsus, a physician, perhaps named Aulus, rather than Aurelius. He probably lived in the time of Augustus, or at the latest in the mid-first century. He employed a scientific approach to medicine, and his treatise, De Medicina, in eight books, still survives.
  • Lucius Aurelius Priscus, consul suffectus in AD 67.
  • Quintus Aurelius Pactumeius Fronto, consul suffectus in AD 80. He entered office on the Kalends of March, and held the consulate for two months.
  • Titus Aurelius Quietus, consul suffectus in AD 82. He served from the Kalends of September, perhaps until the end of the year.
  • Aurelia Messalina, the wife of Ceionius Postumius and mother of Clodius Albinus.
  • Aurelius, a physician, one of whose prescriptions is quoted by Galen.
  • Marcus Aurelius Verianus, governor of Roman Egypt in 188.
  • Marcus Aurelius Cleander, a freedman of Commodus, whom the emperor entrusted with the maintenance of his household, and then the imperial bureaucracy. He enriched himself by selling magistracies, but following a grain shortage in AD 190, the praefectus annonae incited a riot against him. The emperor made no effort to defend his favourite, who was put to death to placate the mob.
  • Quintus Aurelius Polus Terentianus, governor of Dacia in 193.
  • Lucius Aurelius Commodus Pompeianus, consul in AD 209.
  • Marcus Aurelius Sebastenus, equestrian governor of Mauretania Tingitana from AD 215 to 217.
  • Aurelius Philippus, the tutor of Severus Alexander, who afterward wrote a life of the emperor.
  • Lucius Julius Aurelius Septimius Vabalathus Athenodorus, king of the Palmyrene Empire.
  • Marcus Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus, an esteemed poet during the reign of the emperor Carus, and the author of Cynegetica, a treatise on hunting with dogs, most of which has been lost. Several fragments of his other works have survived.
  • Aurelius Arcadius Charisius, a jurist, who probably flourished during the fourth century.
  • Sextus Aurelius Victor, a Latin historian of the fourth century, and the author of several important historical and biographical works. He was governor of Pannonia Secunda under the emperor Julian, and prefect of Rome in AD 389 under Theodosius I.
  • Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, a jurist, poet, and Christian philosopher of the late fourth and early fifth century.
  • Aurelius Onesimus, a legionary in the Legio I Illyricorum.

''Stemma'' of the Aurelii Cottae

Stemma made from Münzer and Badian.

Ancient sources

Modern sources