Caesia (gens)

The gens Caesia was a plebeian clan of Rome during the late Republic, and through imperial times. The Caesius nomen gentilicium seems to be Umbrian in origin, and spread from there into Latium and Campania and up the eastern coastal towns of Gallia Cisalpina as far as Aquileia.

The senatorial (praetorian rank) Caesii appear to have been an Umbrian origin family settled in the port town of Pompeii in Campania (perhaps as early as the 5th century BC), with a branch at Volscian Latin Sora, near Arpinum. Pompeii itself is an Umbrian name comparable in meaning to Latin Quinctius. The famous Roman clan of Pompeii were registered in the Clustumina tribe which included mainly Roman citizens from Umbria. The first member of the gens to achieve prominence was Lucius Caesius the imperator. Under the imperial monarchy, the gens was distinguished for its literary achievements.

Etymology of the clan name

The nomen of the Caesii may be derived from the Latin adjective caesius, meaning a light blue or blue-grey color, typically used to refer to the color of a person's eyes. The same root may have given rise to the praenomen Caeso, and perhaps also to the cognomen Caesar.

Praenomina used by the gens

The Caesii are known to have used the forenames (praenomina) Gaius, Marcus, Lucius, Titus, Publius, Sextus and Numerius.

Branches and cognomina of the gens

The Caesii under the Republic are not known to have used any regular cognomina. In imperial times, the surnames Cordus, Bassus, Nasica, and Taurinus appear. The first three are typical Latin cognomina, while Taurinus may indicate that its bearer was a native of Taurinum, in northern Italy.

Members of the gens

• Lucius Caesius the imperator C. f., mint magistrate circa 110 BC (RRC 298), praetor c.105 and commander in Spain 104 BC.
• Lucius Caesius, eponymous archon at Nakona (western Sicily) with Philonidas, some unknown year after the Punic cession of western Sicily to Rome in 241 BC or in the 2nd century BC.
• Marcus Caesius (born c.140s BC), father of the homonymous praetor of 75
• Marcus Caesius L. f., IIIIvir local magistrate at Sora with Sex. Curilius. Likely son of Lucius Caesius the imperator and cousin of M. Caesius the praetor 75.
• Marcus Caesius M. f. in the tribe Pomptina, praetor in 75 BC.
• Marcus Caesius, a rapacious farmer of the tithes in Sicilia during the administration of Verres, in and after 73 BC.
• Lucius Caesius, a friend of Cicero, who accompanied him during his administration as proconsul in Cilicia in 50 BC.
• Marcus Caesius, an intimate friend of Cicero, who held the office of aedile at Arpinum, the only municipium which had such a magistracy, in 47 BC.
• Publius Caesius, an eques of Ravenna, enrolled as a Roman citizen by Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo.
• Lucius Caesius Clemens of Sora
• Lucius Caesius L. f. Ma[?cer], a local magistrate at Paestum in Lucania in the late Republic or early Julio-Claudian epoch.
• Sextus (?)Caesius an eques Romanus honoured by Cicero with the epithet castissimus homo et integerrimus, he ran a prosperous money-changing concern at Phrygian Apameia (old Kelainai) when Lucius Valerius Flaccus governed Asia province in 62-1 BC.

However, the manuscript testimony on the nomen gentilicium of this businessman is very diverse and contradictory and according to the leading 20th century expert on Ciceronian texts Caesius is only a marginal possibility, with Caesinius the most likely reading.

• Titus Caesius, a jurist, and pupil of Servius Sulpicius Rufus.
• Gaius Caesius L. f. Niger, owner of the slave (or freedman) Caesius Eudoxus in Rome, September 2 BC.
• Caesius Cordus, governor of Crete during the reign of Tiberius, accused of extortion and condemned.
• Caesius Nasica, commander of a legion in Britain under Aulus Didius Gallus.
• Caesius Bassus, a lyric poet of the 1st century, who perished in the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.
• Caesius Bassus, a grammarian of uncertain date, author of the tract Ars Caesii Bassi de Metris.
• Gaius Caesius Sabinus, funded dedications to the Public Deities at Umbrian Sassina.
• Gaius Caesius T. f. Aper of Umbrian Sestinum, praetor then legatus pro praetore governor of Sardinia in AD 70s.
• Marcus Caesius M. f. Verus of Pollentia, tribe Pollia, soldier in the praetorian guard who lived 41 years and served for 27 of them, the last 4 as a centurion in the legio V Macedonica.
• Titus Caesius Taurinus, a poet, who probably lived in the 4th century, and the author of a poem, Votum Fortunae.

See also

• List of Roman gentes

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

Modern works

• RE Caesius
• MRR II

- T. Robert S. Broughton, Magistrates of the Roman Republic, vol. 2 : 99 - 31 BC (American Philological Association, New York, 1952)

• Crawford, M.H., Roman Republican Coin Hoards (Royal Numismatic Society, London, 1969)
• Crawford, M.H., Roman Republican Coinage (Cambridge UP, 1974)
• Hahn, E.Adelaide, Naming-Constructions in Some Indo-European Languages (The American Philological Association, 1969)
• Hoyos, B.Dexter, " `Populus Seanoc[...]', 104 BC ", ZPE 83 (1990), 89-95
• Sherk, Robert K., “ The Eponymous Officials of Greek Cities V ”, ZPE 96 (1993), 267-295
• RDGE - Sherk, Robert K., Roman Documents from the Greek East: Senatus Consulta and Epistulae to the Age of Augustus (The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1969)
• Shackleton Bailey, D.R., Two Studies in Roman Nomenclature (American Classical Studies, Number 3, The American Philological Association, 1976)
• Sydenham, E.H., Coinage of the Roman Republic

• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
• D.P. Simpson, Cassell's Latin & English Dictionary (1963).
• AE 1984, 495 - the tabula Alcantarensis.
• Sherk, ZPE 96 (1993), p. 269
• Sherk, RDGE 23 attests the M. f. filiation of the pr. 75
• AE 1985, 266 (found at Sora, Volscian Latium)
• Sherk, RDGE inscription 23 attests his filiation and tribe
• Marcus Tullius Cicero, In Verrem, i. 50.
• Marcus Tullius Cicero, In Verrem, iii. 39, 43.
• Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem, i. 1. § 4, 2. § 2.
• Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, xiii. 11, 12.
• Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Balbo, 22, Epistulae ad Familiares, xiii. 51
• AE 1911, 67 (found at Sora in Latium)
• CIL I, 3159 = AE 1975, 263 (found at Paestum)
• Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Flacco 68, RE Caesius 13
• Shackleton Bailey, Roman Nomenclature (1976), p. 22
• AE 1907, 16 & 118
• Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales, iii. 38, 70.
• Elias Putschius, Grammaticae Latinae Auctores Antiqui, Hanover (1605), pp. 2664-2671.
• AE 1980, 418 & 424 (found at Sassina, mod. Sarsina)
• Known from two inscriptions; a military diploma showing him praefectus of the 2nd Spanish cavalry cohort in AD 60 (ILS ...) and a honorific found at Umbrian Sestinum (presumably his patria) covering his whole career (ILS 981): C.Caesio T.f. Cl. / Apro, praef.coh. / Hispanor. equi/tatae, trib.milit. / quaestori pro pr. / Ponti et Bithyniae, / aedili pleb.Cer., pr., / legat. pro pr. pro/vinciae Sardiniae / d.d.
• Known from an inscription on a monument at Comana Pontica set by two of his freedmen, and heirs, ex testamento (AE 1990, 896 = AE 2003, 671) : M. Caesius / M. f. Pol. Verus / Pollentia |(centurio) / leg. V Mac(edonicae) mili/tavit in coh(orte) IX / praetoria ann(is) / XVI ordinatus tubi/cem item optio ad car/carem(!) factus est mili/tavit evocatus annis / VII centurio factus / est in leg. V Mac. fuit or/dine in sexta hastatus / posterior stipendia ac/cepit caligata XVI evo/cativa VII centurioni/ca IIII militavit annis XXVII vixit annis XXXXI / M. Caesius Atimetus et / M. Caesius Limen liberti et / heredes eius ex testamento f(aciendum) c(uraverunt)
• Johann Christian Wernsdorf, Poëtae Latini Minores, vol. iv. p. 309 ff.
• Latin Anthology, Ep. 80, ed. Burmann, Ep. 622, ed. Meyer.