Ofilia gens
The gens Ofilia, also spelled Ofillia and Ofellia,[i] was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Its most illustrious member was doubtless the jurist Aulus Ofilius, a friend of both Caesar and Cicero.[1]
Origin
The nomen Ofilius first appears in history during the period of the Samnite Wars, both as a praenomen and a nomen among the Samnites, but by the first century BC individuals of this gens are found at Rome. As a nomen, Ofilius may be regarded as a patronymic surname based on the existing praenomen, but Chase suggests a derivation from Ofella, a cognomen formed as a diminutive of offa, "a morsel".[2]
Members
- Ofilius Calavius, a Campanian leader during the Samnite Wars, although in this case Ofilius appears to be his praenomen.[3]
- Aulus Ofilius,[ii] an eminent jurist of the first century BC, with whom Caesar, Cicero, and Atticus were well-acquainted. He was a pupil of Servius Sulpicius Rufus, and the tutor of Tubero, Capito, and Labeo.[4][5][6][7][8]
- Ofillius, a military tribune serving under Octavian at the time of the mutiny of the soldiers in 36 BC. Ofillius rejected Octavian's offers of military honours as a reward for service. He subsequently disappeared.[9][10]
- Marcus Ofilius Hilarus, an actor whose death was remarked upon by Pliny the Elder. He expired at a birthday dinner, given by himself, so quickly and painlessly that some time elapsed before anyone discovered that he was dead.[11]
- Ofellius, a philosopher mentioned by Arrian.[12]
- Ofilius Macedo, one of the quindecimviri sacris faciundis in AD 204.[13]
- Aulus Ofellius Macedo, a military tribune in the first legion, who subsequently became governor of Epirus, then of Bithynia and Pontus.[13]
- Ofillius Maximus, patronus municipii of Terventum in Samnium.[14][13]
Footnotes
See also
References
- ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 19 ("Ofilius or Ofellius").
- ^ Chase, p. 124.
- ^ Livy, ix. 7.
- ^ Digesta, 1. tit. 2. s. 2. § 44; 32. s. 55; 33 tit. 9. s. 3. §§ 5, 8; 50. tit. 16. s. 234. § 2.
- ^ Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, vii. 21, Epistulae ad Atticum, xiii. 37.
- ^ Zimmern, Geschichte des Römischen Privatrechts bis Justinian.
- ^ Puchta, Cursus der Institutionen, vol. i. p. 427.
- ^ Grotius, De Vitae Jurisconsultorum.
- ^ Appian, Bellum Civile, v. 128.
- ^ Broughton, vol. II, p. 404.
- ^ Pliny the Elder, vii. 53. s. 54.
- ^ Arrian, Epictiti Diatribae, iii. 22. § 27.
- ^ a b c PIR, vol. II, p. 432.
- ^ CIL IX, 2591.
Bibliography
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, Epistulae ad Familiares.
- Titus Livius (Livy), History of Rome.
- Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder), Naturalis Historia (Natural History).
- Lucius Flavius Arrianus (Arrian of Nicomedia), Epicteti Diatribae (Discourses of Epictetus).
- Appianus Alexandrinus (Appian), Bellum Civile (The Civil War).
- Digesta seu Pandectae (The Digest).
- Guilielmus Grotius, De Vitae Jurisconsultorum (Lives of the Jurists), Felix Lopez, Lugdunum Batavorum (1690).
- Sigmund Wilhelm Zimmern, Geschichte des Römischen Privatrechts bis Justinian (History of Roman Private Law to Justinian), J. C. B. Mohr, Heidelberg (1826).
- Georg Friedrich Puchta, Cursus der Institutionen (Course of the Institutions), Breitkopf und Härtel, Leipzig (1841–1847).
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
- Theodor Mommsen et alii, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated CIL), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–present).
- George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII (1897).
- Paul von Rohden, Elimar Klebs, & Hermann Dessau, Prosopographia Imperii Romani (The Prosopography of the Roman Empire, abbreviated PIR), Berlin (1898).
- T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, American Philological Association (1952).