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Bust in the Capitoline Museums, traditionally identified as Lucius Junius Brutus

The gens Junia or Iunia was one of the most celebrated families of ancient Rome. The gens may originally have been patrician, and was already prominent in the last days of the Roman monarchy. Lucius Junius Brutus was the nephew of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last king of Rome, and on the expulsion of Tarquin in 509 BC, he became one of the first consuls of the Roman Republic.

Over the next several centuries, the Junii produced a number of very eminent men, such as Gaius Junius Bubulcus Brutus, three times consul and twice dictator during the period of the Samnite Wars, as well as Marcus and Decimus Junius Brutus, among the leaders of the conspiracy against Caesar. Although the Junii Bruti disappeared at the end of the Republic, another family, the Junii Silani, remained prominent under the early Empire.

Origin

Junius, the nomen of the gens, may be etymologically connected with the goddess Juno, after whom the month of Junius was also named.

Scholars have long been divided on the question of whether the Junii were originally patrician. The family was prominent throughout the whole of Roman history, and all of the members who are known, from the early times of the Republic and on into the Empire, were plebeians. However, it seems inconceivable that Lucius Junius Brutus, the nephew of Tarquin the Proud, was a plebeian. So jealous of their prerogatives were the patricians of the early Republic, that in 450 BC, the second year of the Decemvirate, a law forbidding the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians was made a part of the Twelve Tables, the fundamental principles of early Roman law. It was not until the passage of the lex Licinia Sextia in 367 BC that plebeians were permitted to stand for the consulship.

Still, it has been suggested that the divisions between the orders were not firmly established during the first decades of the Republic, and that as many as a third of the consuls elected before 450 may in fact have been plebeians. Even if this were not the case, the consuls chosen at the very birth of the Roman Republic may have been exceptions. On balance, it seems more likely that the Junii were at first numbered amongst the patricians, and that they afterward passed over to the plebeians; but this question may remain unsettled.

At the end of the Republic, the Junii Silani were raised to patrician status by Augustus, and one of them even held the office of Flamen Martialis; but this family was descended from one of the Silani who had been adopted from the patrician gens Manlia. Several of them bore the surname Torquatus, the name of a great family of the Manlia gens.

Praenomina

The praenomina favored by the early Junii were Marcus, Lucius, and Decimus. Except for the Bruti Bubulci, who favored the praenomen Gaius and may have been a cadet branch of the family, the Junii Bruti relied exclusively on these three names. Many of the other families of the Junii also used these names, although some added Gaius and others Quintus. The Junii were by far the most prominent family to make regular use of Decimus.

The names Titus and Tiberius were carefully avoided by the Junii throughout most of their history. According to tradition, these were the names of the sons of Lucius Junius Brutus, the first consul, who joined in a conspiracy by their uncles, the Vitellii, to restore the Tarquins to power. They were condemned and executed by order of their own father, and this disgrace led to the abandonment of their names by future generations. The only noteworthy exception appears to be the orator Titus Junius, who lived in the final century of the Republic.

Branches and cognomina

Denarius of Decimus Junius Silanus, 91 BC. The obverse depicts a mask of Silenus within a torque, alluding to both the surname Silanus and their descent from the Manlii Torquati, and a plough, perhaps alluding to the dictator Gaius Junius Bubulcus Brutus. On the reverse Victoria drives a biga over a carnyx.

The family names and surnames of the Junii which occur in the time of the Republic are, Brutus, Bubulcus, Gracchanus, Paciaecus, Pennus, Pera, Pullus, and Silanus. Norbanus was formerly supposed to be a surname of the Junia gens, but in fact it seems to have been a gentile name. A few Junii are mentioned without any cognomen. Many Junii appear under the Empire with other surnames, but most of them cannot be regarded as part of the gens; these included many descendants of freedmen, and of citizens enrolled during the magistracies of the various Junii.

Brutus was the name of a plebeian family of the Junia gens, which claimed descent from Lucius Junius Brutus. This possibility was denied by some ancient authorities, on the grounds that the first consul was a patrician, and because his two sons preceded him in death. However, one tradition states that there was a third son, from whom the later Bruti were descended. It is not impossible that there were younger sons, or that the elder sons had children of their own. Brutus is also known to have had a brother, who was put to death by his uncle the king, and there may have been other relatives. Moreover, Niebuhr raised the possibility that Brutus himself was a plebeian. But even if he had been a patrician, as the weight of tradition holds, his descendants may still have gone over to the plebeians.

The name of Brutus is said to have been given to Lucius because he feigned idiocy after the execution of his brother, in hope of avoiding the same fate. However, his father is also referred to as Brutus by the ancient authorities, and while this may have come about merely for narrative convenience, it is possible that the surname had already been borne by the family for some time. According to Festus, the older meaning of the adjective brutus was "serious" or "grave", in which case the surname is much the same as Severus. A less probable explanation suggests a common origin with the name with that of the Bruttii, a people of southern Italy who broke away from the Samnites in the fourth century BC, and whose name is said to have meant, "runaway slaves".

The surname Bubulcus refers to one who plows with oxen. The only persons known to have borne this cognomen also bore that of Brutus, and therefore may have belonged to that family, rather than a distinct stirps of the Junia gens. If so, the Bubulci were the only members of the family to use the praenomen Gaius. They appear in history during the Second Samnite War, at the same time as the other Junii Bruti emerge from two centuries of obscurity, with the agnomen Scaeva. This suggests that the family may have split into two distinct branches about this time.

The origin of the cognomen Pera, which appears in the middle of the third century BC, is not known, but the filiations of the two Perae suggest that they may have been descended from the Junii Bruti. Pennus, also a surname of the Quinctia gens, is probably derived from a Latin adjective meaning "sharp". This family flourished for about a century from the time of the Second Punic War. The surname Gracchanus was assumed by one of the Junii in the latter part of the second century BC, on account of his friendship with Gaius Gracchus. Paciaecus or Paciacus, the cognomen of another member of the gens, does not appear to be of Roman origin, although it may be that Paccianus or Pacianus is the correct form.

Silanus appears to be a lengthened form of Silus, "snub-nosed", which occurs as a cognomen in the Sergia and Terentia gentes, and is not connected with the Greek Silenus, who was nonetheless depicted on their coins. In manuscripts the variants Syllanus and Sillanus are found. The Junii Silani first appear in history during the Second Punic War, and for the next four hundred years they occupied the highest offices of the state. From the middle of the second century BC, at least some of the Silani were descended from the patrician Manlii, from whom they inherited the additional surname Torquatus. In 30 BC, Augustus raised Marcus Junius Silanus to the patriciate. Many of this family were related to, or even descended from, Augustus and the emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

Members

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

Junii Bruti

Denarius of Marcus Junius Brutus, 54 BC, depicting Lucius Junius Brutus on the obverse, and Gaius Servilius Ahala on the reverse. The tyrannicide Brutus claimed both as ancestors.

Junii Perae

Junii Penni

Junii Silani

Denarius of Marcus Junius Silanus, 145 BC. The obverse depicts Roma in front of a donkey's head, alluding to Silenus. The Dioscuri appear on the reverse.
Denarius of Decimus Junius Silanus, 91 BC. The obverse depicts the head of Salus within a torque, alluding to the temple of Salus built by Gaius Junius Bubulcus Brutus in 307 BC. On the reverse, Victoria drives a biga.

Junii Blaesi

  • Junius Blaesus, the maternal grandfather of Sejanus.
  • Quintus Junius Blaesus, consul suffectus in AD 10. Governor of Africa from 21 to 23, he triumphed over Tacfarinas. When his nephew, Sejanus, was arrested and put to death for treason in AD 31, and Blaesus was accused of complicity, he chose to end his life rather than face execution.
  • Junia Blaesa, the mother of Sejanus.
  • Quintus Junius Q. f. Blaesus, consul suffectus in AD 26. He and his brother, also of consular rank, took their own lives in AD 36, after Tiberius designated others for the priesthoods that had been promised to the Junii Blaesi.
  • Lucius Junius Q. f. Blaesus, served under his father during the war against Tacfarinas. He was consul suffectus in AD 28, and put an end to himself in AD 36, as he felt himself disgraced by Tiberius.
  • Junius Blaesus, governor of Gallia Lugdunensis in AD 69, was a supporter of the emperor Vitellius, who nonetheless had Blaesus poisoned because he had boasted about his descent from Mark Antony.

Junii Rustici

Others

Denarius of Marcus Junius Brutus, depicted on the obverse. The reverse depicts a pileus between two daggers, with the legend "EID MAR" (Ides of March), commemorating the assassination of Caesar.
  • Quintus Junius, tribune of the plebs in 439 BC, endeavored to excite the people against the murderers of Spurius Maelius.
  • Lucius Junius C. f. L. n. Pullus, consul in 249 BC during the First Punic War.
  • Decimus Junius, stationed with a force at the mouth of the Volturnus by the consul Appius Claudius Pulcher, in 212 BC, during the Second Punic War.
  • Gaius Junius C. f., triumvir monetalis in 149 BC.
  • Marcus Junius Gracchanus, sometimes emended to M. Junius Congus Gracchanus, a noteworthy legal historian and scholar of the Roman constitution and magistracies. He was perhaps tribune of the plebs in 123 and author of a law that amended the lex Calpurnia. As his nickname implies, he was a supporter of Gaius Gracchus.
  • Titus Junius L. f., a skilled orator in the time of Sulla, obtained the condemnation of Publius Sextius, praetor designatus, for bribery at the elections.
  • Marcus Junius, the previous defender of Publius Quinctius, whose defense was subsequently assumed by Cicero.
  • Gaius Junius, one of the judges in the case against Oppianicus, accused of corruption and compelled to retire from public life.
  • Gaius Junius C. f., son of the Judge in the case against Oppianicus.
  • Marcus Junius, a praetor, before whom Cicero defended Decimus Matrinius.
  • Junius Saturninus, a historian during the time of Augustus, quoted by Suetonius.
  • Junius Otho, a rhetorician, and praetor in AD 22.
  • Junius Otho, tribune of the plebs in AD 37, banished by Tiberius for interceding in the question of the reward that was to be given to the accuser of Acutia, the wife of Publius Vitellius.
  • Lucius Junius Moderatus, surnamed Columella, an important historical writer, author of De Re Rustica.
  • Lucius Junius Gallio, a rhetorician and friend of the elder Seneca, whose son he adopted. He was expelled from Italy because Tiberius suspected he was associated with Sejanus. He may have been related to Sejanus' uncle, Quintus Junius Blaesus, or perhaps even his brother.
  • Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, son of the elder Seneca, adopted by the rhetorician Lucius Junius Gallio.
  • Lucius Junius Maro Aemilius Paternus, an eminent citizen of Lancia, probably related to the two Junii Blaesi who lost their priesthoods.
  • Junius Cilo, procurator of Bithynia et Pontus during the reign of Claudius, brought Mithridates of Bosporus to Rome.
  • Junius Maximus, a contemporary of the poet Statius, from whom we learn that he made an epitome of the histories of Sallust and Livy.
  • Titus Junius Montanus, consul Ex Kal. Mai. in AD 81.
  • Decimus Junius Juvenalis, a poet of the late first and early second centuries.
  • Kanus Junius Niger, consular legate in Germania Superior, AD 116; he may have been consul the previous year.
  • Kanus Junius (Kani f.) Niger, consul in AD 138.
  • Junius Mauricianus, a jurist in the time of Antoninus Pius.
  • Aulus Junius Rufinus, consul in AD 153.
  • Marcus Junius Rufinus Sabinianus, consul in AD 155.
  • Gaius Junius Faustinus Postumianus, governor of Britannia Superior during the first half of the third century.
  • Gaius Junius Donatus, consul in AD 260.
  • Marcus Junius Maximus, consul in AD 282.
  • Junius Quartus Palladius, consul in AD 416.
  • Junius Philargyrius, an early commentator on Publius Vergilius Maro.

See also

Footnotes

  1. One coin of the Silani also seems to allude to Gaius Junius Bubulcus Brutus, perhaps indicating descent from the Bubulci, although it was not unusual for moneyers to depict the past achievements of one's gentiles without there being a close relationship.
  2. Crawford assumes that he was the younger brother of Decimus, the translator of Mago, but Eilers disagrees, concluding that Decimus was probably much older than the moneyer, nor could Marcus have been the son of Decimus, who was probably childless, hence his adoption of one of the Manlii Torquati. Both Crawford and Eilers suggest that Marcus was the author of the lex Junia de repetundis passed between 149 and 123, although according to Broughton it was passed by the Marcus Junius Silanus who was consul in 109.
  3. Crawford was unsure about this moneyer, saying that he could have also been the Consul of 109 BC, but Eilers demonstrates that Crawford's initial suggestion was correct, and that they were two different persons.
  4. Broughton confuses the beginning of his career, as quaestor and proquaestor in Asia, with that of Marcus Junius Silanus, praetor circa 102.
  5. It is uncertain whether he is the son of the Marcus Junius Silanus who was consul in 109 BC, or the one who was praetor about 102.

References

Citations

  1. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 658 ("Junia Gens").
  2. Livy, vi. 42.
  3. ^ Niebuhr, History of Rome, vol. I, p. 522 ff.
  4. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, pp. 819–821 ("Junius Silanus").
  5. Livy, ii. 4, 5.
  6. Dionysius, v. 18.
  7. Cassius Dio, xliv. 12.
  8. Plutarch, "The Life of Brutus", 1.
  9. Livy, i. 56.
  10. Dionysius, iv. 67.
  11. Nonius Marcellus, p. 77.
  12. Festus, s. v. Brutum.
  13. Strabo, vi. p. 225.
  14. Diodorus Siculus, xvi. 15.
  15. Gellius, x. 3.
  16. Niebuhr, History of Rome, vol. i. pp. 63, 98, 515.
  17. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, pp. 508 (Decimus Junius Brutus Scaeva, Nos. 5, 6), 515 ("Bubulcus").
  18. Cassell's Latin & English Dictionary, s. v. Scaeva.
  19. Pliny the Elder, xviii. 37.
  20. Isidore, Origines, xix. 19.
  21. Pliny the Elder, xxxiii. 2.
  22. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 80 (Lucius Junius Paciacus).
  23. Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. IV, p. 52.
  24. Orelli, Inscriptionum Latinarum.
  25. Cassell's Latin & English Dictionary, s. v. Silanus.
  26. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, pp. 455–456.
  27. ^ Dionysius, iv. 68.
  28. ^ Livy, i. 56.
  29. ^ Broughton, vol. I, pp. 1, 2.
  30. Dionysius, iv. 67–85, v. 1–18.
  31. Livy, i. 56–60, ii. 1–7.
  32. Macrobius, ii. 16.
  33. Cassius Dio, xlii. 45.
  34. Plutarch, "The Life of Brutus", 1.
  35. ^ Livy, ii. 4, 5.
  36. ^ Dionysius, v. 6–8.
  37. Dionysius, vi. 70 ff, 87–89, vii. 14, 26.
  38. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 15, 16 (note 1).
  39. Dionysius, vii. 26, 27, 35.
  40. Broughton, vol. I, p. 17.
  41. Dionysius, ix. 40.
  42. Eusebius, Chronicon, ii. 102 ff.
  43. PW, "Orbinia".
  44. Broughton, vol. I, p. 30.
  45. ^ Iunius. Strachan stemma.
  46. Livy, viii. 12, 29.
  47. Diodorus Siculus, xviii. 2.
  48. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 138, 147.
  49. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 155, 158, 159, 160 (note 1), 161, 163, 165, 169.
  50. Livy, x. 43, 47.
  51. Zonaras, viii. 1.
  52. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 181, 182 (note 1).
  53. Livy Epitome, 16.
  54. ^ Valerius Maximus, ii. 4. § 7.
  55. Livy, xxxiv. 1, xxxv. 24, xxxvi. 2, 36, xxxvii. 55.
  56. ^ Valerius Maximus, ix. 1. § 3.
  57. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 340, 353, 363.
  58. Livy, xxxiv. 1, xxxv. 41, xxxvi. 45, xxxvii. 2, 50, 57.
  59. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 340, 356, 362, 366.
  60. Livy, xxxiv. 35.
  61. Broughton, vol. I, p. 345.
  62. Livy, xl. 59, xli. 9, 14, 15, xlii. 45, xliii. 16.
  63. Obsequens, 62.
  64. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 195, 399,
  65. Cicero, De Oratore, ii. 32, 55.
  66. Digesta, 1. tit. 2. s. 39.
  67. Cicero, De Officiis, ii. 14, Pro Fonteio, 13
  68. Valerius Maximus, iii. 7. § 3, viii. 14. § 2.
  69. Livy, Epitome, 55, 56, 59.
  70. Cicero, De Legibus, iii. 9, Pro Balbo, 17, Pr Archia Poeta, 11, Brutus, 28, De Amicitia, 2, Epistulae ad Atticum, xii. 22.
  71. Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History, p. 201.
  72. James and Dillon, A Companion to Women in the Ancient World, p. 363.
  73. Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, xv. 7, 8.
  74. Livy, Periochae, 89.1
  75. CIL I, 709
  76. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 511 ("Brutus").
  77. Verboven, "Damasippus", pp. 196, 197.
  78. Livy, xxix. 11, xxx. 40, xxxi. 4.
  79. Lucilius, 1017.
  80. Cicero, Brutus, 109. De Officiis, iii. 11.
  81. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 508, 509 (note 3), 513.
  82. ^ Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, p. 259.
  83. Livy, xxv. 2, 3, 20.
  84. Broughton, vol. I, p. 251, 268, 274, 280, 287, 292, 299, 300.
  85. Livy, xxxiii. 36.
  86. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 338, 339 (note 8).
  87. Pliny the Elder, xviii. 3. s. 5.
  88. Broughton, vol. I, p. 468.
  89. Eilers, "Silanus and Murena", pp. 178, 179.
  90. Florus, Epitome, 54.
  91. Valerius Maximus, v. 8. § 3.
  92. De Finibus, i, 24. Decius in the manuscript.
  93. Broughton, vol. I, p. 477.
  94. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, pp. 300–301.
  95. Eilers, "Silanus and Murena", pp. 178, 179.
  96. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 513, 535, 537 (note 2), 538, 545, 549.
  97. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, pp. 336–339.
  98. Broughton, vol. II, pp. 60, 64, 88, 94.
  99. Claude Eilers, "Silanus and Murena", pp. 176–179.
  100. Broughton, vol. II, pp. 114, 127, 130 (note 3), 143, 186.
  101. Caesar, De Bello Gallico, vi. 1.
  102. Broughton, vol. II, p. 231.
  103. Broughton, vol. II, pp. 353, 412, 413, 416, 426.
  104. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, p. 538.
  105. Cassius Dio, liv. 6. Silvanus in the manuscript.
  106. CIL, 9.332.
  107. Broughton, vol. II, p. 425.
  108. Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, vi. 1, xiv. 8, Philippicae, xiii. 4.
  109. Velleius Paterculus, ii. 88.
  110. Appian, Bellum Civile, iv. 50.
  111. Suetonius, "The Life of Caesar", 50.
  112. Macrobius, ii. 2.
  113. Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, xiv. 20, xv. 11.
  114. Tacitus, Annales, iii. 76.
  115. Cassius Dio, liv. 18.
  116. Tacitus, Annales, iii. 70.
  117. Ginsburg, "Nero's Consular Policy".
  118. CIL VI, 1980, CIL XIV, 460, AE 2002, 1568.
  119. Julius Capitolinus, "The Lives of the Two Maximini", 16.
  120. Tacitus, Annales, i. 18, iii. 35, 72, 73, v. 7.
  121. Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, p. 486.
  122. ^ Tacitus, Annales, vi. 40.
  123. ^ Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, pp. 163, 304.
  124. Tacitus, Historiae, iii. 38.
  125. Tacitus, Annales, v. 4.
  126. Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, i. 5, § 10, iii. 11, § 3, iv. 22.
  127. Tacitus, Historiae, iv. 40, Agricola, 45.
  128. Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus, 12.
  129. Juvenal, xv. 27.
  130. Livy, iv. 16.
  131. Livy, xxv. 22.
  132. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, pp. 252, 253.
  133. Boris Rankov, "M. Iunius Congus the Gracchan", pp. 89–94.
  134. Cicero, Brutus, 48.
  135. Cicero Pro Quinctio, 1.
  136. Cicero, Pro Cluentio, 1, 20, 27, 29, 33.
  137. Cicero, Pro Cluentio, 49.
  138. Cicero, Pro Cluentio, 45.
  139. Pliny the Elder, xxxv. 10.
  140. Suetonius, "The Life of Augustus", 27.
  141. Tacitus, Annales, vi. 47.
  142. Seager, Tiberius, p. 190.
  143. Grenfell and Hunt, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol. 55, p. 184.
  144. Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 23–24, p. 4.
  145. Tacitus, Annales, xii. 21.
  146. Cassius Dio, lx. 33.
  147. Statius, Silvae, iv. 7, ult.
  148. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
  149. AE 2002, 1762.
  150. ^ Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft.
  151. CIL XVI, 83.

Bibliography

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