Plaetoria (gens)
Encyclopedia
Plaetorius was the family name (nomen
) of a plebeian
gens
in ancient Rome
.
from the 2nd century BC through the civil wars of the 40s BC. Several members of the gens issued denarii
from the late 70s into the 40s, one of them punning on the cognomen
Cestianus by depicting an athlete holding a cestus
. The Cestiani branch seems to come from a Praenestine family of Cestii
by adoption into the Plaetorii of Tusculum
. Their coinage representing Sors
recognizes Praeneste as the Italic oracle most renowned for the casting of lots. A Plaetorius is among the supporters of Pompeius in the civil wars of the 40s
, and the best-known coinage from a member of the gens is a denarius issued for Brutus commemorating the assassination of Caesar
on the Ides of March
.
Roman naming conventions
By the Republican era and throughout the Imperial era, a name in ancient Rome for a male citizen consisted of three parts : praenomen , nomen and cognomen...
) of a plebeian
Plebs
The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
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...
in ancient Rome
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....
.
Roman Republic
Plaetorii are noted as holding office during the RepublicRoman 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...
from the 2nd century BC through the civil wars of the 40s BC. Several members of the gens issued denarii
Denarius
In the Roman currency system, the denarius was a small silver coin first minted in 211 BC. It was the most common coin produced for circulation but was slowly debased until its replacement by the antoninianus...
from the late 70s into the 40s, one of them punning on the 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...
Cestianus by depicting an athlete holding a cestus
Cestus
A cestus is an ancient battle glove, sometimes used in pankration. They were worn as are today's boxing gloves, but were made with leather strips and sometimes filled with iron plates or fitted with blades or spikes, and used as weapons.-Terminology:...
. The Cestiani branch seems to come from a Praenestine family of Cestii
Cestia (gens)
The gens Cestia was a plebeian family at Rome during the later Republic, and in imperial times. The first member of the gens to obtain the consulship was Gaius Cestius Gallus in AD 35...
by adoption into the Plaetorii of Tusculum
Tusculum
Tusculum is a ruined Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy.-Location:Tusculum is one of the largest Roman cities in Alban Hills. The ruins of Tusculum are located on Tuscolo hill—more specifically on the northern edge of the outer crater ring of the Alban volcano...
. Their coinage representing Sors
Sors
In Roman mythology, Sors was a god of luck.Although not much is said about the Roman god, he is mentioned in various stories and prayed to, or asked for assistance in certain points; "Sors, guide my arrow"...
recognizes Praeneste as the Italic oracle most renowned for the casting of lots. A Plaetorius is among the supporters of Pompeius in the civil wars of the 40s
Caesar's civil war
The Great Roman Civil War , also known as Caesar's Civil War, was one of the last politico-military conflicts in the Roman Republic before the establishment of the Roman Empire...
, and the best-known coinage from a member of the gens is a denarius issued for Brutus commemorating the assassination of Caesar
Assassination of Julius Caesar
The assassination of Julius Caesar was the result of a conspiracy by approximately forty Roman senators who called themselves Liberators. Led by Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus, they stabbed Julius Caesar to death in the Theatre of Pompey on the Ides of March 44 BC...
on the Ides of March
Ides of March
The Ides of March is the name of the 15th day of March in the Roman calendar, probably referring to the day of the full moon. The word Ides comes from the Latin word "Idus" and means "half division" especially in relation to a month. It is a word that was used widely in the Roman calendar...
.
- Marcus Plaetorius, a tribune of the plebsTribuneTribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
at an uncertain date. He carried out passage of a plebiscite that established what attendants the praetor peregrinus might have. The office of praetor peregrinus was established in the late 240s BC. - Plaetorius, a tribune of the plebs before 192. No title is preserved, but Cicero names a Lex Plaetoria that protected young men and minors from fraud, and references in PlautusPlautusTitus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as "Plautus", was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...
to such legislation would date it prior to 191 BC. - Plaetorius, a tribune of the plebs before 175. A Plaetorius authored a law under which an altar was dedicated to VerminusVerminusIn Roman mythology, Verminus was the Roman god who protected cattle from disease. The god may have been inherited from the Indigetes, whom the Romans conquered in 218 BC...
by Aulus Postumius AlbinusAulus Postumius Albinus LuscusAulus Postumius Albinus Luscus was a politician of Ancient Rome, of patrician rank, of the 2nd century BC. He was curule aedile in 187 BC, when he exhibited the Great Games, praetor in 185 BC, and consul in 180 BC. In his consulship he conducted the war against the Ligurians.He was censor in 174...
(consulRoman consulA consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...
180 BC) as duovir, and another altar that was found in the Largo ArgentinaLargo di Torre ArgentinaLargo di Torre Argentina is a square in Rome, Italy, that hosts four Republican Roman temples, and the remains of Pompey's Theatre. It is located in the ancient Campus Martius....
. - Gaius Plaetorius was a legateLegatusA legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes...
sent as one of three ambassadors to King GentiusGentiusGentius was the last Illyrian king of the Ardiaean State. The name appears to derive from PIE *g'en- "to beget", cognate to Latin gens, gentis "kin, clan, race". He was the son of Pleuratus III, a king who kept relations with Rome very strong...
of IllyriaIllyriaIn classical antiquity, Illyria was a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula inhabited by the Illyrians....
to protest attacks on allies of Rome. - Lucius Plaetorius, a senator in 129.
- Marcus Plaetorius, a senator put to death on Sulla's orders in 82, along with Venuleius. MünzerFriedrich MünzerFriedrich Münzer was a German classical scholar noted for the development of prosopography, particularly for his demonstrations of how family relationships in ancient Rome connected to political struggles....
distinguishes him from the M. Laetorius who accompanied Gaius MariusGaius MariusGaius 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...
into exile in 88 BC, but the names Laetorius and Plaetorius often create textual difficultiesTextual criticismTextual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
. - Lucius Plaetorius, possibly a Cestianus, a quaestorQuaestorA Quaestor was a type of public official in the "Cursus honorum" system who supervised financial affairs. In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official whereas, with the autocratic government of the Roman Empire, quaestors were simply appointed....
ca. 74–72 BC, or as late as 66, when Cicero refers to him as a senator. His father's name was Lucius. CrawfordMichael Crawford (historian)Michael Hewson Crawford is a British ancient historian and numismatist.-Biography:Michael Crawford was born in Twickenham on 7 December 1939.He was educated at St Paul's School and Oriel College, Oxford , and the British School at Rome....
dates his coinage to 74. - Marcus Plaetorius Cestianus is the most extensively documented of the Republican Plaetorii, but the dating of his offices is problematic. Crawford places his coinage as a monetalis in 69, but he was quaestor sometime before he prosecuted Fonteius in 69 BC, and in the Late Republic a young man usually served as a moneyer before a quaestorship. He was curule aedile most likely in 67, when he also issued coinage. In 66, he was a iudex for a quaestio de sicariis. He was praetorPraetorPraetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
possibly in 64, then governorRoman governorA Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire...
in MacedoniaMacedonia (Roman province)The Roman province of Macedonia was officially established in 146 BC, after the Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus defeated Andriscus of Macedon, the last Ancient King of Macedon in 148 BC, and after the four client republics established by Rome in the region were dissolved...
, where he succeeded Lucius Manlius TorquatusLucius Manlius TorquatusLucius Manlius Torquatus was a Roman politician who was elected Consul in 65 BC after the condemnation of Publius Cornelius Sulla and Publius Autronius Paetus.-Biography:...
in 63 and was followed by Gaius Antonius HybridaGaius Antonius HybridaGaius Antonius Hybrida was a politician of the Roman Republic. He was the second son of Marcus Antonius Orator and brother of Marcus Antonius Creticus; his mother is unknown. He was the uncle of the famed triumvir Mark Antony....
in 62. He is called strategosStrategosStrategos, plural strategoi, is used in Greek to mean "general". In the Hellenistic and Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor...
(Greek στρατηγός) in an inscriptionEpigraphyEpigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
from DelphiDelphiDelphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...
. He seems to have served under Lentulus SpintherPublius Cornelius Lentulus SpintherPublius Cornelius Lentulus, nicknamed Spinther because of his likeness to a popular actor of that name, came from an ancient Roman patrician family of the Cornelia gens. Although treated with great favour by Julius Caesar, Spinther eventually came to support the aristocratic senatorial cause of...
in CiliciaCilicia (Roman province)Cilicia was the name of a province of the Roman Empire.- See also :* Cilicia — Roman Cilicia...
in 55, but there is no evidence for an official position. - Gaius Plaetorius, quaestor under Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus in PontusPontusPontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...
in 48. - Plaetorius Rustianus, a senator in 46. He was a leader among Pompey's forces in Africa and died at HippoHippo RegiusHippo Regius is the ancient name of the modern city of Annaba, in Algeria. Under this name, it was a major city in Roman Africa, hosting several early Christian councils, and was the home of the philosopher and theologian Augustine of Hippo...
. - Lucius Plaetorius Cestianus, a quaestor or proquaestor under Brutus in 42.