Sergia (gens)

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The gens Sergia (or the Sergii), was a famous patrician family in ancient Rome, of which Lucius Sergius Catilina was a member.

Arch of the Sergii in Pula, Croatia

The Sergii were one of the oldest patrician families in Rome. Although they were of consular heritage, the Sergii were by the time of the conspiracy of Catiline in the first century BCE declining in both social and financial fortunes.

Virgil later gave the family an ancestor, Sergestus, who had come with Aeneas to Italy, presumably because they were notably ancient; but they had not been prominent for centuries, Sergestusque, domus tenet a quo Sergia nomen.

The last Sergius to be consul had been Gnaeus Sergius Fidenas Coxo in 380 BC.[1]

Branches and cognomina of the gens[edit]

The Sergii regularly used the cognomina Esquilinus, Fidenas and Catilina.

See also[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ Sallust, De coniuratione Catilinae V.1; Vergil, Aeneid V.121

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSmith, William, ed. (1870). "article name needed". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.