Lutatius was the name of an ancient 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 (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...

). They rose into prominence during the First Punic War

First Punic War

The First Punic War was the first of three wars fought between Ancient Carthage and the Roman Republic. For 23 years, the two powers struggled for supremacy in the western Mediterranean Sea, primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters but also to a lesser extent in...

 and produced several consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

s during the subsequent generations, but were not one of the gentes maiores. The Lutatii were noble

Nobiles

During the Roman Republic, nobilis was a descriptive term of social rank, usually indicating that a member of the family had achieved the consulship. Those who belonged to the hereditary patrician families were noble, but plebeians whose ancestors were consuls were also considered nobiles...

 plebeians.

Due to the ancient Roman custom of naming children after their famous ancestors, several important Lutatii had the same name. The common 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...

 in the family is Catulus, meaning "puppy". "Catulus" may be etymologically related to, but should not be confused with, the name Catullus

Catullus

Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Latin poet of the Republican period. His surviving works are still read widely, and continue to influence poetry and other forms of art.-Biography:...

.

Gaius Lutatius Catulus (consul of 242 BC)

Main article: Gaius Lutatius Catulus

Gaius Lutatius Catulus

Gaius Lutatius Catulus was a Roman statesman and naval commander in the First Punic War.He was elected as a consul in 242 BC, a novus homo. During his consulship he supervised the construction of a new Roman fleet. This fleet was funded by donations from wealthy citizens, since the public treasury...

Gaius Lutatius Catulus was the first consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

 of the family (a novus homo

Novus homo

Homo novus was the term in ancient Rome for a man who was the first in his family to serve in the Roman Senate or, more specifically, to be elected as consul...

), elected in 242 BC

242 BC

Year 242 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Catulus and Albinus...

. He was the hero of the Battle of Aegates Islands that ended the First Punic War

First Punic War

The First Punic War was the first of three wars fought between Ancient Carthage and the Roman Republic. For 23 years, the two powers struggled for supremacy in the western Mediterranean Sea, primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters but also to a lesser extent in...

 by defeating Hanno the Great

Hanno the Great

There were three leaders of ancient Carthage who were known as Hanno the Great, according to two historians . These figures they call for convenience: Hanno I the Great, Hanno II the Great, and Hanno III the Great...

 of Carthage.

Quintus Lutatius Catulus Cerco (consul of 241 BC)

Brother of the above (Gaius Lutatius Catulus

Gaius Lutatius Catulus

Gaius Lutatius Catulus was a Roman statesman and naval commander in the First Punic War.He was elected as a consul in 242 BC, a novus homo. During his consulship he supervised the construction of a new Roman fleet. This fleet was funded by donations from wealthy citizens, since the public treasury...

). He was also a censor

Censor (ancient Rome)

The censor was an officer in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the government's finances....

 in 236 BC

236 BC

Year 236 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caudinus and Varus...

.

Gaius Lutatius Catulus (consul of 220 BC)

Son of the above Gaius Lutatius Catulus

Gaius Lutatius Catulus

Gaius Lutatius Catulus was a Roman statesman and naval commander in the First Punic War.He was elected as a consul in 242 BC, a novus homo. During his consulship he supervised the construction of a new Roman fleet. This fleet was funded by donations from wealthy citizens, since the public treasury...

. He was a consul of 220 BC

220 BC

Year 220 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Laevinus/Catulus and Scaevola/Philo...

 with Lucius Veturius Philo.

Quintus Lutatius Catulus (consul of 102 BC)

Main article: Quintus Lutatius Catulus

Quintus Lutatius Catulus

Quintus Lutatius Catulus was consul of the Roman Republic in 102 BC, and the leading public figure of the gens Lutatia of the time. His colleague in the consulship was Gaius Marius, but the two feuded and Catulus sided with Sulla in the civil war of 88–87 BC...

He is known as a great orator, poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and prose

Prose

Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...

 writer. He was a consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

 of 102 BC

102 BC

Year 102 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Marius and Catulus...

 together with Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...

 and fought with him against the Cimbri

Cimbri

The Cimbri were a tribe from Northern Europe, who, together with the Teutones and the Ambrones threatened the Roman Republic in the late 2nd century BC. The Cimbri were probably Germanic, though some believe them to be of Celtic origin...

 and the Teutones. He committed suicide during the purges of Marius.

Quintus Lutatius Catulus (consul of 78 BC)

Son of the above, a consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

 of 78 BC with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus may refer to:* Marcus Aemilius Lepidus , consul in 232 BC and 221 BC, and augur* Marcus Aemilius Lepidus , consul in 187 BC and 175 BC, Pontifex Maximus 180–152 BC, and censor...

 and censor

Censor (ancient Rome)

The censor was an officer in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the government's finances....

 in 65 BC

65 BC

Year 65 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Cotta and Torquatus...

; his mother was Servilia

Servilia (2nd century BC)

Servilia was the wife of Quintus Lutatius Catulus, the consul during 102 BC. Their daughter Lutatia married the orator Quintus Hortensius, for which reason Cicero calls Servilia Hortensius's "socrus" or mother-in-law ....

. He was one of the very few consulares who survived the civil wars and the purges of Sulla. Therefore he became a very influential person in the Senate

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

. He was married to a Hortensia (sister of Quintus Hortensius

Quintus Hortensius

Quintus Hortensius Hortalus was a Roman orator and advocate.At the age of nineteen he made his first speech at the bar, and shortly afterwards successfully defended Nicomedes IV of Bithynia, one of Rome's dependants in the East, who had been deprived of his throne by his brother. From that time...

, the orator). His sister, Lutatia, in turn was married to his wife's brother Quintus Hortensius, and was the mother of his children, including Hortensia

Hortensia (orator)

Hortensia, daughter of consul and advocate Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, earned notoriety during the late Roman Republic as a skilled orator. She is best known for giving a speech in front of the members of the Second Triumvirate in 42 B.C...

. He was a part of the "boni" faction of the senate and died in the year 61 BC.