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Norbana gens

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Denarius of Gaius Norbanus, 83 BC. The obverse depicts Venus, while the reverse features a prow-stem, fasces, caduceus, and an ear of wheat, an allusion to his father raising the siege of Rhegium during the Social War.[1]

The gens Norbana was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned toward the beginning of the first century BC, and from then to the end of the second century AD they filled a number of magistracies and other important posts, first in the late Republic, and subsequently under the emperors.[2]

Origin

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Because the great majority of Roman gentilicia end in -ius, many writers have supposed Norbanus to have been a cognomen, perhaps belonging to a branch of the Junia gens. In fact, it is itself a nomen gentilicium, belonging to a class of nomina derived from place-names, and ending in -anus.[2][3][4] Such names were common in families of Umbrian origin, although less characteristic of Latin gentes.[5] In the case of the Norbani, the name is likely derived from the town of Norba, in Latium, but, since none of the known members of the gens show any association with the town, it was perhaps an earlier, unknown ancestor who came from there, suggesting the family is of greater antiquity than the available records suggest.[6][7] For the first Norbani appearing in the late Republic, Ronald Syme suggested an Etruscan origin.[8]

Branches and cognomina

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The primary surname of the Norbani is Flaccus, a common surname that translates as "flabby" or "flap-eared".[5][9] Other surnames include Balbus, a common name referring to one who stammers; this is also written as Bulbus, perhaps with an intentional change of meaning, since bulbus refers to an onion.[10][11]

Members

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Aureus of Gaius Norbanus and Lucius Cestius, 43 BC. On the obverse is a bust of the Cumaean Sibyl, while on the reverse Cybele drives a biga pulled by lions, perhaps alluding to Octavian's anticipated victory over Brutus and Cassius.
This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.

Norbani Flacci

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Other Norbani

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ Crawford and T. P. Wiseman assumed he was the same as the consul of 38 BC, but Richard Evans showed he would have been too old by this date.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Diodorus Siculus, xxxvii. 2. § 11.
  2. ^ a b Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 1209 ("Norbanus").
  3. ^ Chase, p. 113, 118.
  4. ^ Schulze, Zur Geschichte lateinischer Eigennamen, pp. 531, 532.
  5. ^ a b Chase, p. 118.
  6. ^ Schulze, Zur Geschichte lateinischer Eigennamen, pp. 531–532.
  7. ^ Taylor, Voting Districts, p. 180.
  8. ^ Syme, The Roman Revolution, p. 200 (note 3).
  9. ^ The New College Latin & English Dictionary, s. v. Flaccus.
  10. ^ Chase, p. 110.
  11. ^ The New College Latin & English Dictionary, s. v. Bulbus.
  12. ^ Appian, Bellum Civile, i. 82, 84, 86, 91.
  13. ^ Livy, Epitome, 85.
  14. ^ Velleius Paterculus, ii. 25.
  15. ^ Plutarch, "The Life of Sulla", 27.
  16. ^ Orosius, v. 20.
  17. ^ Florus, ii. 21. § 18.
  18. ^ Broughton, vol. II, pp. 41, 45 (note 3), 62, 70.
  19. ^ Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, p. 372.
  20. ^ Evans, "Norbani Flacci", pp. 123, 124.
  21. ^ Appian, Bellum Civile, iv. 87, 103 ff'., 106 ff.
  22. ^ Cassius Dio, xxxviii. 43, xlvii. 35, xlix. 23, liii. 28.
  23. ^ Plutarch, "The Life of Brutus", 38.
  24. ^ Broughton, vol. II, pp. 338, 339, 366, 390.
  25. ^ a b c d e f g PIR, vol. II, p. 415.
  26. ^ Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, pp. 500, 501.
  27. ^ Tacitus, Annales, i. 54.
  28. ^ Suetonius, "The Life of Vitellius", 3.
  29. ^ a b PIR, vol. II, p. 416.
  30. ^ Martial, vii. 74.
  31. ^ Franklin, "Pantomimists at Pompeii".
  32. ^ Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, iii. 9.
  33. ^ Cassius Dio, lxvii. 11, lxviii. 9, 30.
  34. ^ Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, x. 66.
  35. ^ Martial, ix. 85.
  36. ^ Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus, 11. § 10.
  37. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 986 ("Lucius Appius Maximus").
  38. ^ PIR, vol. I, p. 117.
  39. ^ Cassius Dio, lxvii. 15.
  40. ^ a b Aelius Lampridius, "The Life of Commodus", 4.

Bibliography

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  • Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica (Library of History).
  • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab Urbe Condita (History of Rome).
  • Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Romaike Archaiologia.
  • Marcus Velleius Paterculus, Compendium of Roman History.
  • Marcus Valerius Martialis (Martial), Epigrammata (Epigrams).
  • Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (Pliny the Younger), Epistulae (Letters).
  • Plutarchus, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans.
  • Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales.
  • Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum (Lives of the Caesars, or The Twelve Caesars).
  • Lucius Annaeus Florus, Epitome de T. Livio Bellorum Omnium Annorum DCC (Epitome of Livy: All the Wars of Seven Hundred Years).
  • Appianus Alexandrinus (Appian), Bellum Civile (The Civil War).
  • Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus (Cassius Dio), Roman History.
  • Aelius Lampridius, Aelius Spartianus, Flavius Vopiscus, Julius Capitolinus, Trebellius Pollio, and Vulcatius Gallicanus, Historia Augusta (Augustan History).
  • Sextus Aurelius Victor (attributed), Epitome de Caesaribus.
  • Paulus Orosius, Historiarum Adversum Paganos (History Against the Pagans).
  • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
  • George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII (1897).
  • Paul von Rohden, Elimar Klebs, & Hermann Dessau, Prosopographia Imperii Romani (The Prosopography of the Roman Empire, abbreviated PIR), Berlin (1898).
  • Schulze, Wilhelm, Zur Geschichte lateinischer Eigennamen, in «Abhandlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse», new series, vol. V, no. 5, Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung (1933), ISSN 0931-2013.
  • Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution, Oxford (1939).
  • T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, American Philological Association (1952).
  • Michael Crawford and T. P. Wiseman, "The Coinage of the Age of Sulla", in The Numismatic Chronicle, Seventh Series, Vol. 4 (1964), pp. 141–158.
  • Michael Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, Cambridge University Press (1974, 2001).
  • John C. Traupman, The New College Latin & English Dictionary, Bantam Books, New York (1995).
  • Richard J. Evans, "Norbani Flacci: The Consuls of 38 and 24 B.C.", in Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, volume 36, part 1, pp. 121–128 (1987).
  • James L. Franklin, Jr., "Pantomimists at Pompeii: Actius Anicetus and His Troupe", in The American Journal of Philology, vol. 108, No. 1, pp. 95–107 (1987).
  • Taylor, Lily Ross, The Voting Districts of the Roman Republic: The Thirty-five Urban and Rural Tribes, ed. Jerzy Linderski, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press (2013, 1960), ISBN 978-0-472-11869-4.