Gaius Marcius Coriolanus reproached by his mother, Veturia, and wife, Volumnia, before the walls of Rome.
Thegens Marcia, occasionally writtenMartia, was one of the oldest and noblest houses atancient Rome. They claimed descent from the second and fourthRoman Kings, and the first of the Marcii appearing in the history of theRepublic would seem to have beenpatrician; but all of the families of the Marcii known in the later Republic wereplebeian. The first to obtain theconsulship wasGaius Marcius Rutilus in 357 BC, only a few years after the passage of thelex Licinia Sextia opened this office to the plebeians.[1]
The Marcii are supposed to have beenSabines, descended from a certain Marcus Marcius ofCures, a kinsman ofNuma Pompilius, and his son,Numa Marcius, a childhood friend of Pompilius, who accompanied him to Rome and served as his chief advisor. His son, the younger Numa Marcius, was urban prefect underTullus Hostilius, and his grandson wasAncus Marcius, the fourthKing of Rome.[1]
Although the Roman monarchy was not strictly hereditary, tradition holds that the sons of Ancus Marcius hoped to succeed their father, but were prevented from doing so when his chief advisor, the EtruscanLucius Tarquinius, took advantage of their absence at the time of the king's death to solicit support for his own claim, and was elected king.[2]
After biding their time for many years, the sons of Marcius gained their revenge by engineering the assassination of Tarquin, but they were again prevented from claiming the throne by a ruse ofTanaquil, the Roman queen, who installed her stepson,Servius Tullius, as regent, until he had sufficient support to rule on his own. The later Marcii claimed descent from Ancus Marcius, but nothing further is recorded of his sons or the generations between them and the Marcii of the early Republic.[1][3]
ThenomenMarcius is a patronymic surname, based on the commonpraenomenMarcus. There is no reason to doubt that both names are in turn derived from the godMars, although the precise linguistic process by which this occurred is complex and uncertain.[4]
Denarius ofL. Marcius Philippus, minted in 56 BC. The obverse is a portrait ofAncus Marcius, the legendary 4th king of Rome and founder of the gens. The reverse depicts theAqua Marcia, built byQ. Marcius Rex in 144 BC, who also had his statue on the aqueduct.[5]
The Marcii were relatively conservative with respect to praenomina, with only three names accounting for most of the Marcii of the Republic. The main branches of the family usedLucius with eitherGaius orQuintus, but not generally both. Other names, among themGnaeus,Publius, andMarcus, appear only occasionally. Most praenomina of the Marcii were common, but history records one person calledSeptimus Marcius, which if correct represents an example of a rare Latin praenomen—although it is possible that in this instance,Septimus should be regarded as a surname.
The ancient praenominaNuma andAncus evidently passed out of use some time before the establishment of the Republic. Both appear to have been Sabine or Oscan, as were all of the persons known to have borne them. No attempt seems to have been made to revive either of them at Rome, either as praenomen orcognomen.Numa seems to be related toNumitor, the name of one of the ancientKings of Alba Longa, and the grandfather ofRomulus, and may share a common root with the praenomenNumerius, which remained in use at Rome for many centuries; Chase suggests a meaning related to "arranger" or "orderer", which would suit both Numa Pompilius and his kinsman, Numa Marcius. ForAncus, otherwise known only from the legendary founder of thePublicia gens, he suggests the meaning of "servant", perhaps in the religious sense.[6]
The only surname associated with the patrician Marcii wasCoriolanus, which does not seem to have represented a distinct family of the Marcian gens. During the time of the Republic, the plebeian Marcii bore the cognominaCensorinus, Crispus, Figulus, Libo, Philippus, Ralla, Rex, Rufus, Rutilus, Septimus, Sermo, andTremulus. Those ofCensorinus, Libo, andPhilippus are found on coins.[1]
Coriolanus, the earliest cognomen of the Marcii, and the only one generally believed to have belonged to any of the patrician Marcii, was the personal surname ofGaius Marcius, a young soldier whose brilliant charge through the gates ofCorioli resulted in the capture of that town from theVolscians. We are told that he had two young sons, from whom one might imagine that the later Marcii were descended; but all of the later Marcii known to history were plebeians. If any of them were descendants of Coriolanus, then they must have stepped down or been removed from the patrician order. The surnameCoriolanus does not appear to have been passed down to later generations of the Marcii.[7][8]
The earliest family of the plebeian Marcii bore the surname ofRutilus, meaning "reddish", probably signifying that the first of this family had red hair.[9] It is through this family that the Marcii emerged from obscurity, only a few years after the passage of thelex Licinia Sextia opened the consulship to the plebeians. The son of Gaius Marcius Rutilus, the first plebeiancensor, was himself censor twice, and took the nameCensorinus, which was thereafter passed down in this family for several centuries.[10]
After this family, the next cognomen of the Marcii wasPhilippus, a Greek name, which first appears as the surname of Quintus Marcius, the consul of 281 BC; but this may anticipate the adoption of the name by his descendant, for a certain Lucius Marcius of this family is said to have had some connection withPhilip V of Macedon; his son, Quintus Marcius Philippus, was consul in 186 BC, and it may therefore have been Lucius who was the first to obtain the cognomen. The initial cognomen of the family may have beenTremulus, since the filiations given in theFasti link Quintus Marcius Tremulus, consul in 306, and his probable son Quintus Marcius Philippus, consul in 281.Philippus means "lover of horses", and the name had for centuries been associated with theMacedonian kings;Philip II was the father ofAlexander the Great. So wide was the fame of this dynasty, that it is not entirely impossible that the name had reached Rome at an earlier date. The Philippi were proud of this association since Lucius Marcius Philippus, the consul of 91, even put the portrait of Philip V of Macedon on the denarii he minted.[11][12][13]
Friedrich Münzer considers that the Marcii bearing the cognomenFigulus ("potter") were linked to the Philippi; the first of that name might have been the second son of Quintus Marcius Philippus, the consul of 281.[14] The Figuli flourished until the end of the Republic, and obtained two consulships.
Ralla seems to be the next surname of the Marcii, first appearing toward the close of the third century BC. It may mean "scraper", and Chase suggests a common origin with theradula, or "scraper", a standard carpentry tool. This family is only found in history for a brief period.[8][15]
The cognomenRex, meaning "king", is usually interpreted as an allusion to the family's traditional descent from Numa Pompilius and Ancus Marcius.[16] However, another possibility is that the surname was borne by the descendants of a certain Marcus Marcius,Rex Sacrorum, during the third century BC, and perhaps the first plebeian to hold that office.[17][18]
Marcus Marcius, a kinsman ofNuma Pompilius, who together with Numa's father, Pompo, persuaded him to accept theRoman Kingdom.[19]
Numa Marcius M. f., the son of Marcus, was an intimate friend of Numa Pompilius, and accompanied him to Rome, where he was enrolled in theSenate, and created the firstPontifex Maximus. According toPlutarch, when the king died after a reign of forty-three years, Numa Marcius contended withTullus Hostilius for the throne, but being defeated he starved himself to death.[20][21]
Numa Marcius Numae f. M. n., the son of Numa Marcius, served aspraefectus urbi under Tullus Hostilius. He married Pompilia, daughter of Numa Pompilius, and was the father of Ancus Marcius.[20][22][23]
Ancus Marcius Numae f. Numae n., the fourth King of Rome, according to tradition restored many religious ceremonies that Tullus Hostilius had neglected, but also ably defended the city in times of war. To him are credited many improvements in and around the city of Rome, including the fortification of theJaniculum, the building of a bridge over theTiber, and the settling of capturedLatins on theAventine Hill.[i][20][25][26][27][28]
Gaius Marcius Coriolanus,[ii] a legendary Roman soldier who led the charge that captured theVolscian town ofCorioli. He subsequently became a fierce opponent of the plebeians, urging that they surrender the hard-won office oftribune of the plebs before grain could be purchased for them during a famine. Rather than face trial for his effrontery, he fled into exile among the Volsci, then led a Volscian force against Rome, withdrawing only at the pleas of his mother and sister. He was the subject of one ofShakespeare's history plays.[29][30][31][32][33]
Gaius Marcius C. f. L. n. Rutilus Censorinus, tribune of the plebs in 311 BC, he and his colleague, Lucius Atilius, succeeded in passing a law requiring themilitary tribunes to be elected by the people. He was consul in 310 BC, during theSecond Samnite War, together withQuintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus. While Fabius campaigned against the Etruscans, Marcius fought against theSamnites, and captured the town ofAllifae, but was seriously wounded in a subsequent battle. He was one of the first plebeian pontiffs in 300 BC, and served as censor in 294; elected censor a second time in 265, he is said to have brought forward a law precluding anyone from holding the censorship twice in the future.[41][22][42][43][44] He was perhaps the firstprinceps senatus, appointedc. 275 BC.[45]
Denarius of Quintus Marcius Philippus, 129 BC. The obverse depicts a head of Roma; on the reverse is a horseman, behind whom is a Macedonian royal helmet.
Quintus Marcius, grandfather of Quintus Marcius Tremulus, the consul of 306 BC.
Quintus Marcius Q. f., father of the consul of 306 BC.
Quintus Marcius Q. f. Q. n. Tremulus, consul in 306 BC, defeated theHernici and Anagnini, and celebrated a triumph. He was likely the father of Quintus Marcius Philippus, since their filiation match and they were the first two Marcii to use the praenomen Quintus.[74][75][76]
Lucius Marcius Q. f. Philippus, father of the consul of 186 BC, was connected in some manner withPhilip V of Macedon, although the circumstances are not known. He may have been the first member of this family to bear the surnamePhilippus, rather than the consul of 281.[78][79][76]
Quintus Marcius L. f. Q. n. Philippus, praetor in 188 BC, received the province of Sicily. He was consul in 186 BC, during which Rome was embroiled in a panic over the discovery of theBacchanalia. He and his colleague were sent against the Ligurians, but Marcius was badly defeated. Consul for the second time in 169, he had the conduct of the war in Macedonia. He was censor in 164.[80][81][82][83]
Quintus Marcius Q. f. L. n. Philippus, son of the consul in 186 and 169 BC, served under his father in Macedonia.[84]
Quintus Marcius Philippus, according toCicero, was condemned, and went into exile atNuceria, where he became a citizen. He might possibly be the same as the son of the consul of 186 and 169 BC.[85]
Quintus Marcius Q. f. Q. n. Philippus,triumvir monetalis in 129 BC. His coins feature a helmet with goat's horns, usually worn by Macedonian kings, an allusion to his cognomen.[86]
Lucius Marcius Q. f. Q. n. Philippus, a powerful orator of the late Republic. As tribune of the plebs in 104 BC, his attempt to bring about agrarian reform was blocked. He was consul in 91, and found himself in violent opposition toMarcus Livius Drusus, who had him arrested; but so strongly did public opinion sway that Philippus subsequently had all of Drusus' laws nullified. He maintained neutrality during the civil war between Marius and Sulla, and was censor in 86; after Sulla's death he became a supporter ofGnaeus Pompeius.[87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95]
Lucius Marcius L. f. Q. n. Philippus, consul in 56 BC, maintained neutrality during theCivil War, remaining on good terms with both Caesar and Cicero. His second wife wasAtia; he thus became the step-father of Gaius Octavius, afterward the emperorAugustus, whom he tried to dissuade from becoming Caesar's heir, and was sent by the Senate to negotiate withAntonius. At Augustus' request, he helped construct a number of public buildings. His daughter was the second wife ofCato the Younger.[96][97][98][99][100][101][102]
Lucius Marcius L. f. L. n. Philippus, the step-brother of Augustus, was tribune of the plebs in 49 BC, praetor in 44, and consul in 38. He married Atia, the younger sister of his father's second wife.[103][104][105]
Quintus Marcius L. f. L. n. Philippus, proconsul ofCilicia in 47 BC. He was initially thought to be the brother of the consul of 56, but he was actually his younger son.[106][107][108]
Marcia L. f. L. n., wife of Cato the Younger, by whom she had several children; she lived for several years with the oratorQuintus Hortensius, but returned to Cato after the latter's death. When Cato fled Rome on the outset of the Civil War, in BC 49, he left his family and property in her care.[109][110][111]
Marcia, the wife ofPaullus Fabius Maximus, consul in 11 BC, who is said to have spoken to his wife of the secret visit of Augustus to his grandson,Agrippa, in AD 13. According to Tacitus, Marcia disclosed this fact to the empressLivia, leading in some fashion to the death of Fabius shortly thereafter.[112][113]
Made from Münzer with corrections from Sumner.[114][108] Thenomen Marcius has been omitted for all the men named Tremulus, Philippus, or Figulus. All dates are BC, unless mentioned otherwise. Vertical dotted lines show adoptions.
Marcus Marcius Ralla,praetorurbanus in 204 BC, when he set a date for the trial ofQuintus Pleminius, legatepro praetore during the previous year, who was accused ofperduellio for robbing the temple ofPersephone atLocri, and for torturing and killing two military tribunes.[iv] In 202, Marcius was one of three legates ofScipio Africanus who escorted the Carthaginian ambassadors to Rome to establish terms for peace at the end of the Second Punic War.[116][117]
Quintus Marcius Ralla, tribune of the plebs in 196 BC, joined with his colleague, Gaius Atinius Labeo, in vetoing an attempt by the consulMarcus Claudius Marcellus to prevent the conclusion of peace with Philip V of Macedon. He was then appointedduumvir in 194 and 192 BC, in the former year to dedicate the temple ofFortuna Primigeneia on theQuirinal Hill, and in the latter to dedicate two temples that had been vowed byLucius Furius Purpureo.[118][119]
Marcus Marcius, the first plebeian Rex Sacrorum, probably appointed between 254 and 243 BC, during the tenure ofTiberius Coruncanius, himself the first plebeian Pontifex Maximus. He died in 210.[120][17][18]
Publius Marcius Rex, one of three senatorial envoys sent to restrain the consulGaius Cassius Longinus in 171 BC. Frustrated with his lack of a command in theThird Macedonian War, Cassius ignored the envoys and marched his army throughIllyria to Macedon.[121][122]
Quintus Marcius Rex, father of Quintus, the praetor of 144 BC, and probable brother of Publius Marcius Rex, the envoy of 171.
Quintus Marcius Q. f. Rex, praetorurbanus in 144 BC, he was appointed by the Senate to repair the Appian, Old Aniensian, and Tepulanaqueducts, and to construct a new one, which became known as theAqua Marcia. He was granted about 180 millionsestertii for the task, and hisimperium was extended the following year so that he could finish the task.[123][124][22][125]
Quintus Marcius Q. f. Q. n. Rex, consul in 118 BC, triumphed over the Stoeni, aLigurian people. The colony ofNarbo Martius, established during his consulship, may have been named for him. Marcius' only son died during his consulship, but he stoically performed his duties, even meeting the Senate on the day of his son's burial.[126][127][128][129][130][131][132]
Marcia Q. f. Q. n., sister of the consul of 118 BC, married Gaius Julius Caesar, grandfather ofthe dictator.[133]
Marcia, one of threeVestalscondemned for violating their vows of celibacy in 113 BC.[134][135][136][137][138][139][140] She is identified by Münzer as a sister of the consul of 118, who was also prosecuted at the same time; both the trials of the father and daughter had political motivations.[141]
Quintus Marcius,triumvir monetalis in 118 BC, likely a relative of the consul of 118.[142][143]
Quintus Marcius Q. f. (Q. n.) Rex, consul in 68 BC,[v] and afterward proconsul inCilicia, for which he requested but was not granted a triumph. In 63, the Senate dispatched him to keep watch over Gaius Mallius, one ofCatiline's confederates atFaesulae. He had married a sister ofPublius Clodius Pulcher, who expected to receive an inheritance from his brother-in-law, but was disappointed when Marcius died without leaving him anything.[144][145][146]
Titus Marcius Figulus, younger brother of the consul of 162 BC, reported that a palm-tree had sprung in the inner court of his house.[155][156]
Gaius Marcius C. f. C. n. Figulus, a very distinguished jurist, sought the consulship in the 130's or 120's BC, but was unsuccessful. He was the son of the consul of 162.[157][158][159]
Gaius Marcius C. f. C. n. Figulus, consul in 64 BC, took measures to prevent various unauthorized organizations from influencing the comitia. The following year, he supported Cicero's measures to suppress theconspiracy of Catiline. He was born Quintus Minucius Thermus, but later adopted into the Marcii.[160][161][162]
Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus, consulsuffectus in AD 52, and afterward proconsul ofAsia. He and his daughter, Servilia, were denounced before the emperorNero, and condemned to death in AD 66.[169][170]
Marcia Servilia Q. f. Sorana, was denounced before Nero on the grounds that she had consulted soothsayers concerning her father's fate, and condemned to death.
(Cremutia) Marcia A. f., the daughter ofAulus Cremutius Cordus, preserved her father's works after he had been denounced beforeTiberius, and taken his own life.
Marcius L. f. Macer, led a force ofgladiators in support ofOtho againstVitellius in AD 69. As one of Otho's chief supporters, he was to be made consulsuffectus later in the year; but when Vitellius came to power, Macer was removed from the list of consuls designate, so that the emperor could honour his own supporters with consulships.[182][183]
Marcia Aurelia Ceionia Demetrias, the mistress ofQuadratus, who was implicated in a plot to assassinate Commodus, and put to death. Marcia then became the emperor's mistress, and participated in a second, successful conspiracy.[192]
Marcius Agrippa, a man of humble origin, was appointed governor ofPannonia by the emperorMacrinus in AD 217. He later served as governor ofDacia, and is probably the same Marcius Agrippa who, as admiral of the fleet, had witnessed the death of Macrinus' predecessor,Caracalla.[193][194]
^Niebuhr proposes that the descendants of these captives formed the origin of the plebeians.[24]
^Gnaeus in some manuscripts; this was not a regular name of the Marcia gens, but there are one or two other examples.
^abThe two Atiae were sisters. The first one married Octavius, then Philippus after the former's death in 59 BC.
^This identification perMünzer, referring to a fragment ofValerius Antias mentioned byAulus Gellius, in which a tribune of the plebs named Licinius asks a praetor named Marcus Marcius to set a date for a trial ofperduellio. Münzer notes that Ralla is the only Marcus Marcius known to have been praetor, and that Pleminius would have likely have been the defendant. Other authorities, however, have suggested that the trial referred to occurred at a much later date, around BC 73.[115]
^His colleague,Lucius Caecilius Metellus, died at the beginning of his year of office, and was not replaced, for which reason Marcius is described as "sole consul" in the fasti.
^Cicero,Pro Plancio, 21;De Officiis, ii. 21;Pro Gaio Rabirio, 7;De Oratore, ii. 78; iii. 1;De Provinciis Consularibus, 9;De Legibus, ii. 12;De Lege Agraria contra Rullum, ii. 16;De Domo Sua, 32;Epistulae ad Atticum, viii. 3;Pro Lege Manilia, 21;Philippicae, xi. 6;Brutus, 47, 64, 95;Fragmenta, vol. iv. p. 449 (ed. Orelli).
Quintus Asconius Pedianus,Commentarius in Oratio Ciceronis In Cornelio (Commentary on Cicero's OrationIn Cornelio),Commentarius in Oratio Ciceronis In Pisonem (Commentary on Cicero's OrationIn Pisonem,Commentarius in Oratio CiceronisPro Milone (Commentary on Cicero's OrationPro Milone).
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Friedrich Münzer,Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families, translated by Thérèse Ridley, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999 (originally published in 1920).
T. Robert S. Broughton,The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, American Philological Association (1952).
Patrick McGushin,Sallust: The Histories Clarendon Press, Oxford (1992).
Ronald Syme, "C. Marcius Censorinus in the East," inAnatolica, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1995), pp. 302–307.
Antony Kamm,The Romans, An Introduction, Routledge, London (1995).
Francis X. Ryan,Rank and Participation in the Republican Senate, Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag (1998).
Claude Eilers,Roman Patrons of Greek Cities, Oxford University Press (2002).
John Briscoe,A Commentary on Livy, books 41–45, Oxford University Press (2012).
Alison E. Cooley,The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy, Cambridge University Press (2012).
Werner Eck, "Die Fasti consulares der Regierungszeit des Antoninus Pius, eine Bestandsaufnahme seit Géza Alföldys Konsulat und Senatorenstand" (The Consular Fasti for the Reign of Antoninus Pius: an Inventory since Géza Alföldy'sKonsulat und Senatorenstand), inStudia Epigraphica in Memoriam Géza Alföldy, Werner Eck, Bence Fehér, Péter Kovács, eds., Bonn, pp. 69–90 (2013).
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