The gens Accia was a Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 family during the late Republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

. The gens

Gens

In ancient Rome, a gens , plural gentes, referred to a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps . The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the...

is known primarily from two individuals, Lucius Accius

Lucius Accius

Lucius Accius , or Lucius Attius, was a Roman tragic poet and literary scholar. The son of a freedman, Accius was born at Pisaurum in Umbria, in 170 BC...

, a freedman

Freedman

A freedman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves became freedmen either by manumission or emancipation ....

 and tragic poet of the 2nd century BC, and Titus Accius, a Roman eques who in 66 BC undertook the prosecution of Aulus Cluentius Habitus

Aulus Cluentius Habitus

Aulus Cluentius Habitus, a wealthy citizen of Larinum in Samnium, and subject of a Roman cause célèbre.In 74 BC he accused his stepfather Statius Albius Oppianicus of an attempt to poison him; had it been successful, the property of Cluentius would have fallen to his mother Sassia. Oppianicus was...

, defended by Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

 in his oration, Pro Cluentio

Pro Cluentio

Pro Cluentio is a speech by the Roman orator Cicero given in defense of a man named Aulus Cluentius Habitus Minor.Cluentius, from Larinum in Molise, was accused in 66 BC by his mother of having poisoned his stepfather, Oppianicus the elder; Cluentius was very unpopular in Rome because of rumors...

.

Both men were from the town of Pisaurum in Umbria

Umbria

Umbria is a region of modern central Italy. It is one of the smallest Italian regions and the only peninsular region that is landlocked.Its capital is Perugia.Assisi and Norcia are historical towns associated with St. Francis of Assisi, and St...

, suggesting that the gens was of Umbrian origin. It is not known whether Titus Accius was a descendant of the poet, or of the family that had freed him.