Caecina gens

Caecina was the name of an Etruscan family of Volaterrae, one of the ancient cities of Etruria. Persons of this gens are first mentioned in the first century BC. Under the Empire the name is of frequent occurrence. As late as the reign of Honorius, we read of the poet Decius Albinus Caecina, residing at his villa in the neighborhood of Volaterrae; and until modern times there has been a family of this name at the modern Volterra. The family tomb of the Caecinae has been discovered in the neighborhood of Volterra; in this tomb there was found a beautiful sarcophagus, now in the Museum of Paris.[1]

Origin

The family seems either to have derived its name from, or given it to, the river Caecina, which flows by the town of Volaterrae. From the tomb of the Caecinae, we learn that Ceicna was the Etruscan form of the name.[1]

Branches and cognomina

The family was divided into several branches, and we accordingly find on the funeral urns the cognomina Caspu and Tlapuni; in Latin inscriptions we also meet with the surnames Quadratus and Placidus, and various others occur.[1]

Members

This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.

• Aulus Caecina, a native of Volaterrae, whom Cicero defended in his oration, Pro Caecina, in 69 BC.[2]
• Aulus Caecina A. f. Severus, an orator and scholar of Etruscan culture. He was a political opponent of Caesar, but was pardoned at the end of the Civil War. He was the author of a work on Etruscan religious practices, which was an important source of information for Pliny the Elder and Seneca the Younger.[3][4][5][6]
• Caecina, a native of Volaterrae, and friend of Octavian.[7][8]
• Aulus Caecina Severus, legate of Germanicus, triumphed over the Cherusci in AD 14.[9][10][11][12]
• Aulus Caecina Largus, consul suffectus in AD 13.[13][14][15]
• Aulus Caecina Paetus, consul suffectus in AD 37; put to death by the emperor Claudius in AD 42.[16][17][18][19]
• Gaius Caecina Largus, consul in AD 42, inhabited the magnificent house which formerly belonged to Scaurus, the contemporary of Cicero.[20][21][22][23]
• Publius Caecina Largus, a close friend of Claudius and perhaps the brother of Gaius Caecina Largus.[24]
• Quintus Caecina Primus, consul suffectus in AD 53, probably in the middle of the year.[25][26]
• Gaius Caecina Tuscus, governor of Egypt, banished by the emperor Nero.[27][28][29]
• Aulus Caecina Alienus, general of the emperor Vitellius in AD 69.[30][31][32][33][34]
• Licinius Caecina, a senator attached to Otho's party, in AD 69.[35][36]
• Gaius Laecanius Bassus Caecina Paetus, consul suffectus for the months of November and December in AD 70, and subsequently governor of Asia.[37][38][39][40]
• Antonius Caecina Sabinus, consul in AD 316.
• Caecinia Lolliana, a priestess of Isis, and wife of Gaius Ceionius Rufius Volusianus Lampadius.[41]

Caecinae Decii

• Caecina Decius Albinus, praefectus urbi of Rome in AD 402.
• Caecina Decius Aginatius Albinus, praefectus urbi of Rome in AD 414.
• Caecina Decius Aginatius Albinus, consul in AD 444.
• Caecina Decius Basilius, consul in 463 and twice praetorian prefect of Italy.
• Caecina Decius Maximus Basilius, consul in AD 480.
• Caecina Mavortius Basilius Decius, consul in AD 486.
• Caecina Decius Faustus Albinus, consul in 493.
• Decius Albinus Caecina, a Roman satirist of the fifth century.

See also

• List of Roman gentes

References

1. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 529 ("Caecina").
2. Cicero, Pro Caecina.
3. Suetonius, "The Life of Caesar", 75.
4. Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, vi. 5–9, xiii. 66.
5. Hirtius, De Bello Africo, 89.
6. Seneca the Younger, Quaestiones Naturalis, ii. 39, 56.
7. Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, xvi. 8, Epistulae ad Familiares, vi. 5.
8. Appian, Bellum Civile, v. 60.
9. Tacitus, Annales, i. 31, 32, 56, 60, 63–68, 72, iii. 18, 33, 34.
10. Cassius Dio, lv. 29, 30, 32.
11. Velleius Paterculus, ii. 112.
12. Fasti Magistrorum Vici, CIL VI, 10286, 10287.
13. Fasti Arvalium, AE 1987, 163; 1991, 306; 1991, 307.
14. Fasti Antiates, CIL X, 6638, CIL X, 6639.
15. Gordon and Gordon, "Roman Names and the Consuls of A. D. 13".
16. Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, iii. 16.
17. Cassius Dio, lx. 16.
18. Martial, Epigrammata, i. 14.
19. Zonaras, xi. 9.
20. Cassius Dio, lx. 10
21. Asconius Pedianus, In Ciceronis Pro Scauro, p. 27 (ed. Orelli).
22. Pliny the Elder, xvii. 1.
23. Gallivan, "The Fasti for the Reign of Claudius", pp. 407, 408, 412, 424.
24. Tacitus, Annales, xi. 33, 34.
25. Fasti Ostienses, CIL XIV, 244.
26. Gallivan, "The Fasti for the Reign of Claudius", pp. 411, 423, 425.
27. Tacitus, Annales, xiii. 20, Historiae, iii. 38.
28. Suetonius, "The Life of Nero", 35.
29. Cassius Dio, lxiii. 18.
30. Tacitus, Historiae, i. 52, 53, 61, 67–70, ii. 20–25, 30, 41–44, 71, 99, 100, iii. 13, 14, 31.
31. Cassius Dio, lxv. 10, 14, lxvi. 16.
32. Josephus, Bellum Judaïcum, iv. 11. § 3.
33. Suetonius, "The Life of Titus", 6.
34. Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus, 10.
35. Tacitus, Historiae, ii. 53.
36. Pliny the Elder, xx. 18. s. 76.
37. CIL VI, 200, AE 1908, 86.
38. Gallivan, "The Fasti for A.D. 70–96", pp. 187, 213.
39. Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten", p. 304.
40. Salomies, Adoptive and Polyonymous Nomenclature, pp. 115 ff.
41. PLRE, vol. I, p. 511.

Bibliography

• Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, Epistulae ad Familiares, Pro Caecina.
• Aulus Hirtius (attributed), De Bello Africo (On the African War).
• Marcus Velleius Paterculus, Compendium of Roman History.
• Quintus Asconius Pedianus, Commentarius in Oratio Ciceronis Pro Scauro (Commentary on Cicero's Oration Pro Scauro).
• Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger), Naturales Quaestiones (Natural Questions).
• Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder), Historia Naturalis (Natural History).
• Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (Pliny the Younger), Epistulae (Letters).
• Flavius Josephus, Bellum Judaïcum (The Jewish War).
• Marcus Valerius Martialis (Martial), Epigrammata (Epigrams).
• Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales, Historiae.
• Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum (Lives of the Caesars, or The Twelve Caesars).
• Appianus Alexandrinus (Appian), Bellum Civile (The Civil War).
• Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus (Cassius Dio), Roman History.
• Sextus Aurelius Victor (attributed), Epitome de Caesaribus.
• Joannes Zonaras, Epitome Historiarum (Epitome of History).
• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
• Theodor Mommsen et alii, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated CIL), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–present).
• René Cagnat et alii, L'Année épigraphique (The Year in Epigraphy, abbreviated AE), Presses Universitaires de France (1888–present).
• Arthur E. and Joyce S. Gordon, "Roman Names and the Consuls of A. D. 13", in American Journal of Philology, vol. 72, pp. 283–292, (1951).
• A. H. M. Jones & J. R. Martindale, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (abbreviated PLRE), Cambridge University Press (1971–1992).
• Paul A. Gallivan, "The Fasti for the Reign of Claudius", in Classical Quarterly, vol. 28, pp. 407–426 (1978); "The Fasti for A.D. 70–96", in Classical Quarterly, vol. 31, pp. 186–220 (1981).
• Werner Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139" (Annual and Provincial Fasti of the Senatorial Governors from AD 69/70 to 138/139), in Chiron, vol. 12 (1982).
• Olli Salomies, Adoptive and Polyonymous Nomenclature in the Roman Empire, Societas Scientiarum Fenica, Helsinki (1992).