Utilia gens
The gens Utilia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Almost no members of this gens are mentioned in history, but a number are known from inscriptions.
Origin
The nomen Utilius belongs to a large class of gentilicia originally formed from cognomina ending in the diminutive suffix and related suffixes. The root, utilis, would have been bestowed on someone thought useful, helpful, capable, or suitable in some manner.Praenomina
The praenomen found with the largest number of inscriptions of the Utilii is Gnaeus, which was common throughout Roman history, but only used by a minority of families. Other praenomina found in epigraphy include Lucius, Marcus, and Publius, each of which was common at all periods.Members
- Gnaeus Utilius, the master of Antiochus, a slave named in an inscription from Cora in Latium, dating from the middle portion of the first century BC.
- Gnaeus Utilius Cn. l. Eros, a freedman named in an inscription from Rome, dating from the first half of the first century.
- Utilia Alce, dedicated a tomb at Rome, dating from the latter half of the first century, for her grandson, Quintus Plotius Celer, aged one year, five months, and seven days.
- Gnaeus Utilius Januarius, dedicated a tomb at Ulubrae in Latium, dating between the middle of the first century and the end of the second, for his foster son, Marcus Asidonius Atticus, aged seven years, eleven months, and fourteen days.
- Utilia M. l. Myrtale, a freedwoman, wife of the freedman Marcus Valerius Herma, and the mother of Valeria Septimina, for whom she and Herma built a second-century tomb at Ariminum in Cisalpine Gaul. The inscription naming this family may be a forgery.
- Utilius, reportedly the lover of Faustina the Younger, whom Marcus Aurelius nonetheless advanced, is probably to be identified with Marcus Tutilius Pontianus Gentianus.
- Lucius Utilius L. f. Sabinianus, a native of Fanum Fortunae, in Umbria, was a soldier in the twelfth urban cohort at Rome in AD 197.
Undated Utilii
- Utilia P. l. Hilara, a freedwoman buried at Rome.