The gens Cluentia 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 of 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...

first appears during the Social War, in which Lucius Cluentius was general of the Pompeiian

Pompeii

The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...

 forces. The most famous family of the name lived at Larinum

Larino

Larino is a town and comune of approximately 8,200 inhabitants in Molise, province of Campobasso, southern Italy. It is located in the fertile valley of the Biferno River....

, where they and their cousins, the Aurii

Auria (gens)

The gens Auria was a Roman family at Larinum in southern Italy, known chiefly from Cicero's oration, Pro Cluentio.-Praenomina used by the gens:The Aurii are known to have used the praenomina Marcus, Numerius, Aulus, and Gaius....

, fell victim to the machinations of Oppianicus, exposed 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...

.

Origin of the gens

The Cluentii were probably of Oscan

Osci

The Osci , were an Italic people of Campania and Latium adiectum during Roman times. They spoke the Oscan language, also spoken by the Samnites of Southern Italy. Although the language of the Samnites was called Oscan, the Samnites were never called Osci, or the Osci Samnites...

 origin. Both Pompeii and Larinum, the towns with which the family was associated, were located within Oscan territory. Lucius Cluentius and the Pompeiian forces he commanded during the Social War fought against the Roman army under Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix , known commonly as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He had the rare distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as that of dictator...

, so the Cluentii may not have gained Roman citizenship

Roman citizenship

Citizenship in ancient Rome was a privileged political and legal status afforded to certain free-born individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance....

 until the conclusion of the war.

Branches and cognomina of the gens

The only cognomen

Cognomen

The cognomen nōmen "name") was the third name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary. Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name in order to identify a particular branch within...

 associated with the Cluentii is Habitus, also found as Abitus and Avitus. Habitus might refer to a person's manner of dress, style, or bearing; Avitus is derived from an adjective, meaning "grandfatherly, ancestral," and thus might indicate the senior branch of a family.

Members of the gens

This list includes abbreviated praenomina

Praenomen

The praenomen was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the dies lustricus , the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birth of a boy...

. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.

• Lucius Cluentius, called Aulus Cluentius by Eutropius, was one of the Italian generals during the Social War. He commanded the Pompeiian troops against Sulla
  Lucius Cornelius Sulla
  Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix , known commonly as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He had the rare distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as that of dictator...
  
  , and was at first victorious, but was subsequently defeated and slain.
• Aulus Cluentius Habitus, a respected citizen of Larinum, who died in 88 B.C., leaving a widow, Sassia, a son and a daughter.
• Cluentia, sister of the elder Aulus Cluentius Habitus, married Statius Albius Oppianicus, by whom she was allegedly poisoned. Oppianicus subsequently married Cluentius' widow, Sassia.
• Aulus Cluentius A. f. 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...
  
  , accused his stepfather, Oppianicus, of attempting to poison him. Oppianicus was convicted in 74 B.C., allegedly because the judge had been bribed. Eight years later, Cicero defended Cluentius on a similar charge made by Oppianicus' son.
• Cluentia A. f., sister of the younger Aulus Cluentius Habitus, married her cousin, Aulus Aurius Melinus. Her mother, Sassia, persuaded him to divorce her, and his death was procured by Cluentia's stepfather, Oppianicus.