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{{Short description|Family in ancient Rome, signified by a person's nomen}}
{{About|the Roman family unit}}

In [[ancient Rome]], a '''gens''' ({{IPAc-en|ɡ|ɛ|n|s}} or {{IPAc-en|dʒ|ɛ|n|z}}, {{IPA|la|gẽːs|lang}}; {{plural form}}: '''gentes''' {{IPA|la|ˈgɛnteːs|}}) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same [[Roman naming conventions#Nomen|''nomen gentilicium'']] and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens, sometimes identified by a distinct [[cognomen]], was called a ''stirps'' ({{plural form}}: ''stirpes''). The gens was an important [[social structure]] at Rome and throughout ''[[Roman Italy|Italia]]'' during the period of the [[Roman Republic]]. Much of individuals' social standing depended on the gens to which they belonged. Certain gentes were classified as [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]], others as [[plebeian]]; some had both patrician and plebeian branches. The importance of the gens as a social structure declined considerably in [[Roman Empire|imperial times]], although the ''gentilicium'' continued to define the origins and [[List of Roman dynasties|dynasties]] of the ancient Romans, including the emperors.<ref name="Harper">
[[Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities| ''Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities'']], Second Edition, [[Harry Thurston Peck]], Editor (1897).</ref><ref name="OCD">''[[Oxford Classical Dictionary]]'', 2nd Ed. (1970).</ref>

==Origins==
The word ''gens'' is sometimes translated as "race", or "nation", meaning a people descended from a common ancestor.  It can also be translated as "clan", "kin", or "tribe", although the word [[Roman tribe|''tribus'']] has a separate and distinct meaning in Roman culture.  A gens could be as small as a single family, or could include hundreds of individuals.  According to tradition, in 479 BC the [[Fabia gens]] alone were able to field a militia consisting of three hundred and six men of fighting age.  The concept of the gens was not uniquely Roman, but was shared with communities throughout Italy, including those who spoke [[Italic languages]] such as [[Latin]], [[Oscan language|Oscan]], and [[Umbrian language|Umbrian]] as well as the [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscans]], whose language was unrelated. All of these peoples were eventually absorbed into the sphere of Roman culture.<ref name="Harper" /><ref name="OCD" /><ref name="livy2">[[Livy]], ''[[History of Rome (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]]'', Book II</ref><ref name="Smith">''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]'', [[William Smith (lexicographer)|William Smith]], Editor.</ref>

The oldest gentes were said to have originated before the [[Founding of Rome|foundation of Rome]] (traditionally 753 BC), and claimed descent from mythological personages as far back as the time of the [[Trojan War]] (traditionally ended 1184 BC<ref name="Chronographia" />). However, the establishment of the gens cannot long predate the adoption of hereditary surnames.  The ''[[Roman naming conventions|nomen gentilicium]]'', or "gentile name", was its distinguishing feature, for a Roman citizen's nomen indicated his membership in a gens.<ref name="Harper" /><ref name="Smith" /><ref name="Chronographia">[[Eratosthenes]], ''Chronographia'', cited in [[Michael Wood (historian)|Michael Wood]], ''In Search of the Trojan War'' (1985).</ref><ref name="livy1">[[Livy|Titus Livius]], ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]]'', Book I.</ref>

The nomen could be derived from any number of things, such as the name of an ancestor, a person's occupation, physical appearance, character, or town of origin.  Because some of these things were fairly common, it was possible for unrelated families to bear the same nomen, and over time to become confused.

Persons could be [[Adoption in ancient Rome|adopted]] into a gens and acquire its nomen. A ''libertus'', or "[[freedman]]", usually assumed the nomen (and sometimes also the praenomen) of the person who had [[Manumission|manumitted]] him, and a naturalized citizen usually took the name of the [[Patronage in ancient Rome|patron]] who granted his [[Roman citizenship|citizenship]]. Freedmen and newly enfranchised citizens were not technically part of the gentes whose names they shared, but within a few generations it often became impossible to distinguish their descendants from the original members.  In practice this meant that a gens could acquire new members and even new branches, either by design or by accident.<ref name="Harper" /><ref name="OCD" /><ref name="pauly">''[[Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft]]'', [[August Pauly]] and [[Georg Wissowa]], Editors.</ref>

===Stirpes===
Different branches or ''stirpes'' of a gens were usually distinguished by their [[cognomina]], additional surnames following the nomen, which could be either personal or hereditary.  Some particularly large stirpes themselves became divided into multiple branches, distinguished by additional cognomina.<ref name="Harper" /><ref name="Smith" />

===Praenomina===
Most gentes regularly employed a limited number of [[given name|personal names]], or ''[[praenomina]]'', the selection of which helped to distinguish members of one gens from another. Sometimes different branches of a gens would vary in their names of choice. The most conservative gentes would sometimes limit themselves to three or four praenomina, while others made regular use of six or seven.<ref name="Harper" /><ref name="OCD" />

There were two main reasons for this limited selection: first, it was traditional to pass down family names from one generation to the next; such names were always preferred. Second, most patrician families limited themselves to a small number of names as a way of distinguishing themselves from the plebeians, who often employed a wider variety of names, including some that were seldom used by the patricians. However, several of the oldest and most noble patrician houses frequently used rare and unusual praenomina.<ref name="Smith" /><ref name="pauly"/>

Certain families also deliberately avoided particular praenomina. In at least some cases, this was because of traditions concerning disgraced or dishonoured members of the gens bearing a particular name. For example, the [[Junia gens]] avoided the praenomina ''[[Titus (praenomen)|Titus]]'' and ''[[Tiberius (praenomen)|Tiberius]]'' after two members with these names were executed for treason. A similar instance supposedly led the assembly of the [[Manlia gens]] to forbid its members from bearing the praenomen ''[[Marcus (praenomen)|Marcus]]'', although this prohibition does not seem to have been strictly observed.<ref name="Harper" /><ref name="livy2"/><ref name="Smith" /><ref>[[Livy]], ''[[History of Rome (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]]'', Book VI.</ref>

==Social function of the gens==
In theory, each gens functioned as a state within a state, governed by its own elders and assemblies, following its own customs, and carrying out its own religious rites. Certain cults were traditionally associated with specific gentes.  The gentile assemblies had the responsibility of adoption and guardianship for their members.  If a member of a gens died [[wikt:intestate|intestate]] and without immediate family, his property was distributed to the rest of the gens.<ref name="Harper" /><ref name="OCD" />

The decisions of a gens were theoretically binding on all of its members.  However, no public enactment is recorded as having been passed by the assembly of a gens.  As a group, the gentes had considerable influence on the development of [[Roman law]] and religious practices, but comparatively little influence on the political and constitutional history of Rome.<ref name="Harper" /><ref name="OCD" />

==Patrician and plebeian gentes==
Certain gentes were considered patrician, and others plebeian.  According to tradition, the patricians were descended from the "city fathers", or ''patres''; that is, the heads of the family at the time of its foundation by [[Romulus]], the first [[King of Rome]].  Other noble families which came to Rome during the time of the kings were also admitted to the patriciate, including several who emigrated from [[Alba Longa]] after that city was destroyed by [[Tullus Hostilius]].  The last known instance of a gens being admitted to the patriciate prior to the first century BC was when the Claudii were added to the ranks of the patricians after coming to Rome in 504 BC, five years after the establishment of the Republic.<ref name="Harper" /><ref name="OCD" /><ref name="livy2"/><ref name="livy1"/>

Numerous sources describe two classes amongst the patrician gentes, known as the ''gentes maiores'', or major gentes, and the ''gentes minores'', or minor gentes.  No definite information has survived concerning which families were numbered amongst the gentes maiores, or even how many there were.  However, they almost certainly included the [[Aemilia gens|Aemilii]], [[Claudia gens|Claudii]], [[Cornelia gens|Cornelii]], [[Fabia gens|Fabii]], [[Manlia gens|Manlii]], and [[Valeria gens|Valerii]].  Nor is it certain whether this distinction was of any practical importance, although it has been suggested that the ''[[princeps senatus]]'', or speaker of the [[Roman senate|Senate]], was usually chosen from their number.<ref name="Harper" />

For the first several decades of the Republic, it is not entirely certain which gentes were considered patrician and which plebeian.  However, a series of laws promulgated in 451 and 450 BC as the [[Twelve Tables]] attempted to codify a rigid distinction between the classes, formally excluding the plebeians from holding any of the major magistracies from that time until the passage of the ''[[Lex Licinia Sextia]]'' in 367 BC.  Another law promulgated as part of the tables forbade the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians, but this was repealed after only a few years, by the ''[[Lex Canuleia]]'' in 445 BC.<ref name="Harper" /><ref name="OCD" />

Despite the formal [[Conflict of the Orders|reconciliation of the orders]] in 367, the patrician houses, which as time passed represented a smaller and smaller percentage of the Roman populace, continued to hold on to as much power as possible, resulting in frequent conflict between the orders over the next two centuries.  Certain patrician families regularly opposed the sharing of power with the plebeians, while others favoured it, and some were divided.<ref name="OCD" /><ref name="Smith" /><ref>[[Michael Grant (author)|Michael Grant]], ''History of Rome'' (1978)</ref>

Many gentes included both patrician and plebeian branches.  These may have arisen through adoption or manumission, or when two unrelated families bearing the same nomen became confused.  It may also be that individual members of a gens voluntarily left or were expelled from the patriciate, along with their descendants.  In some cases, gentes that must originally have been patrician, or which were so regarded during the early Republic, were later known only by their plebeian descendants.<ref name="OCD" />

By the first century BC, the practical distinction between the patricians and the plebeians was largely symbolic, with only a few priesthoods and ceremonial offices restricted to patricians.  However, such was their prestige that, beginning with the administration of [[Caesar]], and continuing into imperial times, a number of families were raised to the patriciate, replacing older families that had become extinct or faded into obscurity, and which were no longer represented in the [[Roman senate]].  By the third century, the distinction between patricians and plebeians had lost its relevance.  The emperor [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]] and his successors revived the title as a mark of distinction granted to individuals, rather than a class to which an entire family belonged.<ref name="Harper" /><ref name="OCD" />

==See also==
* [[Genos]] – a similar concept in Ancient Greece
* [[Gana]] – a cognate Sanskrit term referring to a different type of human group
* [[Gentile]]
* [[List of Roman gentes]]
* [[List of Roman nomina]]
* [[Roman naming conventions]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|gens}}
*{{Commonscatinline|Ancient Roman gentes}}

{{Ancient Rome topics}}

[[Category:Ancient Roman families]]
[[Category:Roman gentes| ]]
[[Category:Social groups]]