Bruttia (gens)

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The gens Bruttia was a Roman family during the late Republic and into imperial times. None of the gens obtained any important magistracies until the latter half of the first century AD, when Lucius Bruttius Maximus was proconsul in Cyprus.


The nomen Bruttius probably indicates that the ancestors of the gens were from Bruttium, the southernmost region of Italia. The Bruttii were an Oscan people descended from the Lucani, from whom they asserted their independence during the fourth century BC. The name of Bruttii, which they adopted for themselves, may be a pre-Sabellic name meaning "runaways".[1][2][3][4]


The praenomina used by the Bruttii are Lucius, Gaius, and Quintus.

Branches and cognomina[edit]

No distinct families of the Bruttii appear under the Republic, during which the only cognomen is Sura. A number of surnames occur in imperial times, of which all but Balbus appear to belong to the same family. The others were Maximus, Praesens, and Crispinus. This family came from Volceii, in Lucania, and seems to have made a habit of adopting names from the female line. The combination of Quinctius or Quintius Crispinus probably asserts the family's descent from the ancient patrician house of the Quinctii Crispini.[5]



See also[edit]

List of Roman gentes


  1. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, xvi. 15.
  2. ^ Strabo, Geographica, vi. 253 ff.
  3. ^ Marcus Junianus Justinus, Historiarum Philippicarum libri XLIV, xxiii. 1.
  4. ^ Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd Ed. (1970).
  6. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, xiii. 38.
  7. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, xvi. 21.
  8. ^ Walls of Pompeii
  9. ^ Fasti Capitolini.
