The extensive mercantile interests of the Herennii are attested by several authors, who describe the family's participation in the
Sicilian and
African trade, and especially their involvement in purchasing and exporting
silphium, a medicinal herb of great value in antiquity, which grew only along a short stretch of the African coast, and defied all attempts to cultivate it.[ii][8] The Herennian interest in trade is attested by the surname Siculus (a Sicilian),[9] the settlement of a merchant named Herennius at
Leptis Magna,[10] the legend of the founding of a temple to Hercules at Rome,[11][12] and a coin of the gens bearing a representation of the goddess
Pietas on the obverse, and on the reverse Amphinomus carrying his father, a reference to the legend of the two brothers of
Catana, who escaped an eruption of
Mount Aetna carrying their aged parents.[1][2]
Origin
The Herennii were originally
Samnites from
Campania, but they were absorbed into the Roman state following the Samnite Wars.[13][14][15][16] The
nomenHerennius appears to be a patronymic surname, as Herennius was an
Oscanpraenomen. The
Marii were their hereditary
clientes.[17]Livy mentions a Herennius who was one of the leading members of the senate of
Nola in
Campania, and many of the Herennii remained in this region of Italy; a Marcus Herennius was
decurion of
Pompeii about 63 BC.[18] The Herennii preserved a
Sabellic custom by assuming
matronymic and occasionally gamonymic surnames, the arrangement of which could vary considerably.[7] Livy records an example of this in connection with the panic over the discovery of the
Bacchanalia at Rome in 186 BC: Minius Cerrinius was the son of a Cerrinius and Minia Paculla;[iii] after marrying Herennia, he became Herennius Cerrinius.[19] Herennius Etruscus Messius Decius was the son of the emperor Decius and Herennia Etruscilla.[7]
Praenomina
The Herennii of the Republic favoured the praenomina Gaius,
Marcus, and Lucius, the three most common names throughout Roman history. At least one was named Titus, also among the most common praenomina.
Branches and cognomina
In the time of the
Republic, the
cognomina found for the Herennii include Balbus, Bassus, Cerrinius, Pontius, and Siculus. Many other surnames occur in Imperial times.[7]Balbus and Bassus were common surnames, the former originally referring to one who stammers, and the latter to one inclined to stoutness.[20]Cerrinius and Pontius were Samnite nomina, the latter perhaps cognate with the Latin Quinctius. Siculus refers to an inhabitant of Sicily, where some of the Herennii carried on their trade.[21][22]Picens, attributed to the consul of 34 BC, would, if accurate, suggest that a branch of the Herennii had settled in
Picenum.[23]
Members
This list includes abbreviated
praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see
filiation.
Gaius Herennius, according to some sources one of the commissioners for assigning land to the Latin colony at
Placentia in 218 BC. He and his colleagues were obliged to seek refuge at
Mutina following an insurrection of the
Boii, but according to Polybius they were captured by the Gauls.[24][25][26]
Herennius Bassus, one of the leading senators at
Nola in 215 BC, during the
Second Punic War. In answer to the embassy of
Hannibal urging the town to desert the Roman cause, Bassus said that the city was satisfied with its alliance with Rome, and had no desire to change sides.[27]
Herennius Cerrinius,[iv] a priest who officiated at the Bacchanalia held at Rome in 186 BC, having been initiated into the rites by his mother, Minia Paculla. The exposure of the rites and rumours about the immoral behaviour of participants caused a general panic at Rome, and they were brutally suppressed, in the course of which Cerrinius probably perished.[28]
Marcus Octavius Herennius, according to legend, a flute-player who became a successful trader. He dedicated a tenth of his gains to
Hercules, and after successfully fending off an attack of pirates, the god appeared to him in a dream, stating that he had given Herennius the strength. In gratitude, Herennius built a chapel to Hercules at the foot of the
Aventine Hill, near the
Porta Trigemina.[11][12]
Herennius Siculus, a
haruspex, and a friend of
Gaius Sempronius Gracchus, was arrested because of his association with Gracchus; but rather than face the dishonour of imprisonment in the
Tullianum, he bashed his head against the doorpost, and so expired.[29]
Gaius Herennius, the
patron of
Gaius Marius, who was summoned to testify against Marius on a charge of bribery. Herennius refused, on the grounds that it would be unlawful for a patron to do injury to his client. He probably lived near
Arpinum.[17]
Marcus Herennius, consul in 93 BC, who won election against the noted orator
Lucius Marcius Philippus, despite his own humble birth and limited oratorical skill. Large amounts of the expensive medicinal herb
silphium reached Rome during his consulship, probably due to the trading connections of the Herennii.[30][31][32][8]
Titus Herennius, a banker at
Leptis Magna, whom
Verres had put to death during his
praetorship, despite more than one hundred Roman citizens at
Syracuse who attested to his good character and innocence of any crime.[37]
Gaius Herennius, the addressee of a treatise on rhetoric attributed to
Cicero; he does not seem to be identified with any of the other men of this name.[38]
Marcus Herennius, a
decurion at
Pompeii in 63 BC, he was struck and killed by lightning out of a cloudless sky. Under
augural law, this constituted a prodigy, and the event was later viewed as foreshadowing the
treason of Catiline.[39]
Sextus Herennius, father of the tribune.
Gaius Herennius Sex. f., tribune of the plebs in 59 BC, lent considerable support to
Publius Clodius Pulcher, when he illegally procured his adoption into a plebeian gens, in order to obtain the tribunician power.[40]
Lucius Herennius Balbus, assisted
Lucius Sempronius Atratinus in the prosecution of
Marcus Caelius Rufus for vis in 56 BC. Cicero, who was a friend of all three men, successfully defended Caelius in his oration Pro Caelio, in which he asserted that Herennius and Sempronius were being exploited by
Clodia, Caelius' former lover, and the sister of Cicero's enemy, Publius Clodius Pulcher.[v]
Lucius Herennius Balbus, perhaps the same person as the friend of Cicero, demanded that the slaves belonging to
Titus Annius Milo and his wife, Fausta, be tortured in order to obtain evidence concerning the death of Publius Claudius Pulcher.[41][42]
Herennius Gallus, an actor at
Gades, whom
Lucius Cornelius Balbus raised to the rank of an
eques, presenting him with a gold ring, and seating him in the part of the theatre that was reserved for the equites.[43]
Herennius, a young man expelled from the army by
Augustus on account of his profligate habits. Macrobius relates two anecdotes concerning their conversations.[vi]
Marcus Herennius M. f. M. n. Picens, consul suffectus in AD 1.
Herennius Capito,
procurator of
Iamnia during the reign of
Tiberius, arrested
Herod Agrippa for a debt owed to the Imperial treasury, and reported on Herod's conduct when the young man escaped.
Marcus Herennius Secundus, consul suffectus in AD 183.
Herennius Modestinus, a celebrated jurist of the third century AD; he was a pupil of
Ulpian, and considered one of the great jurists in the classical period of Roman law.[54]
Herennia Cupressenia Etruscilla, wife of the emperor
Decius, and Roman empress from AD 249 to 251. She is not mentioned by the historians, but is known from coins and inscriptions bearing her name and likeness.[55][56][57]
Quintus Herennius Etruscus Messius Decius, son of the emperor Decius, was appointed consul in AD 251, and subsequently elevated to the rank of Augustus, becoming emperor together with his father; but both father and son were slain in battle against the
Goths in
Thrace before the end of the year.[58][59]
^From the Tale of the Two Brothers of
Catana, or Pii Fratres, who were regarded as the model of filial piety. Amphinomus carried his father; Anapias (not pictured) carried his mother. They refused to abandon their parents even when it seemed that the lava was about to overtake them due to their burden; but miraculously the lava parted and they were saved.[1] Many copies of this coin still exist.[2]
^For uncertain reasons, silphium disappeared by the reign of
Nero, who is said to have received the last stalk of it as a curiosity; factors in its disappearance probably included overharvesting and a brief fashion for animals fed upon it. The identity of silphium has never been satisfactorily established, although it is depicted on a number of coins from Cyrene; it is generally supposed to have been a variety of Ferula, possibly extinct, but perhaps identical with still extant species, such as Ferula tingitana. These plants resemble depictions of silphium, and share some of the medicinal properties that were ascribed to it.
^Born Minius Cerrinius; he apparently assumed the nomen Herennius as a gamonymic surname following his marriage to a Herennia.
^Sempronius was easily persuaded to prosecute Caelius, who earlier that year had prosecuted Lucius Calpurnius Bestia, supposed by some to have been Sempronius' biological father, on a charge of ambitus (bribery). Clodia, meanwhile, is traditionally identified with
Lesbia, the lover of
Catullus, whose attributes accord somewhat with Cicero's description of Clodia in Pro Caelio.
^"When the order was issued, [Herennius] asked, 'How shall I present myself at home? What can I say to my father?' 'Tell him,' replied Augustus, 'that you did not like me.' Herennius had been scarred on the forehead by a stone, and boasted of it as an honourable wound. But Augustus counselled him: 'Herennius, next time you run away, do not look behind you.' "[44]
References
^
abClaudian, Carmina Minora, "On the Statues of the Two Brothers at Catana".
Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Novus Thesaurus Veterum Inscriptionum (New Treasury of Ancient Inscriptions), Milan (1739-42).
Francesco Scipione, Marchese di Maffei, Museum Veronense, hoc est, Antiquarum Inscriptionum atque Anaglyphorum Collectio (Museum of Verona, or a Collection of Antique Inscriptions and Reliefs).
George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII (1897).
T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, American Philological Association (1952–1986).
E. Mary Smallwood, Documents Illustrating the Principates of Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian, Cambridge University Press (1966).
Paul A. Gallivan, "The Fasti for A.D. 70–96", in Classical Quarterly, vol. 31, pp. 186–220 (1981).
Olli Salomies, Adoptive and Polyonymous Nomenclature in the Roman Empire, Societas Scientiarum Fennica, Helsinki (1992).
John C. Traupman, The New College Latin & English Dictionary (Bantam, 1995).
Werner Eck and Andreas Pangerl, "Neue Diplome mit den Namen von Konsuln und Statthaltern," in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, vol. 187 (2013).
The extensive mercantile interests of the Herennii are attested by several authors, who describe the family's participation in the
Sicilian and
African trade, and especially their involvement in purchasing and exporting
silphium, a medicinal herb of great value in antiquity, which grew only along a short stretch of the African coast, and defied all attempts to cultivate it.[ii][8] The Herennian interest in trade is attested by the surname Siculus (a Sicilian),[9] the settlement of a merchant named Herennius at
Leptis Magna,[10] the legend of the founding of a temple to Hercules at Rome,[11][12] and a coin of the gens bearing a representation of the goddess
Pietas on the obverse, and on the reverse Amphinomus carrying his father, a reference to the legend of the two brothers of
Catana, who escaped an eruption of
Mount Aetna carrying their aged parents.[1][2]
Origin
The Herennii were originally
Samnites from
Campania, but they were absorbed into the Roman state following the Samnite Wars.[13][14][15][16] The
nomenHerennius appears to be a patronymic surname, as Herennius was an
Oscanpraenomen. The
Marii were their hereditary
clientes.[17]Livy mentions a Herennius who was one of the leading members of the senate of
Nola in
Campania, and many of the Herennii remained in this region of Italy; a Marcus Herennius was
decurion of
Pompeii about 63 BC.[18] The Herennii preserved a
Sabellic custom by assuming
matronymic and occasionally gamonymic surnames, the arrangement of which could vary considerably.[7] Livy records an example of this in connection with the panic over the discovery of the
Bacchanalia at Rome in 186 BC: Minius Cerrinius was the son of a Cerrinius and Minia Paculla;[iii] after marrying Herennia, he became Herennius Cerrinius.[19] Herennius Etruscus Messius Decius was the son of the emperor Decius and Herennia Etruscilla.[7]
Praenomina
The Herennii of the Republic favoured the praenomina Gaius,
Marcus, and Lucius, the three most common names throughout Roman history. At least one was named Titus, also among the most common praenomina.
Branches and cognomina
In the time of the
Republic, the
cognomina found for the Herennii include Balbus, Bassus, Cerrinius, Pontius, and Siculus. Many other surnames occur in Imperial times.[7]Balbus and Bassus were common surnames, the former originally referring to one who stammers, and the latter to one inclined to stoutness.[20]Cerrinius and Pontius were Samnite nomina, the latter perhaps cognate with the Latin Quinctius. Siculus refers to an inhabitant of Sicily, where some of the Herennii carried on their trade.[21][22]Picens, attributed to the consul of 34 BC, would, if accurate, suggest that a branch of the Herennii had settled in
Picenum.[23]
Members
This list includes abbreviated
praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see
filiation.
Gaius Herennius, according to some sources one of the commissioners for assigning land to the Latin colony at
Placentia in 218 BC. He and his colleagues were obliged to seek refuge at
Mutina following an insurrection of the
Boii, but according to Polybius they were captured by the Gauls.[24][25][26]
Herennius Bassus, one of the leading senators at
Nola in 215 BC, during the
Second Punic War. In answer to the embassy of
Hannibal urging the town to desert the Roman cause, Bassus said that the city was satisfied with its alliance with Rome, and had no desire to change sides.[27]
Herennius Cerrinius,[iv] a priest who officiated at the Bacchanalia held at Rome in 186 BC, having been initiated into the rites by his mother, Minia Paculla. The exposure of the rites and rumours about the immoral behaviour of participants caused a general panic at Rome, and they were brutally suppressed, in the course of which Cerrinius probably perished.[28]
Marcus Octavius Herennius, according to legend, a flute-player who became a successful trader. He dedicated a tenth of his gains to
Hercules, and after successfully fending off an attack of pirates, the god appeared to him in a dream, stating that he had given Herennius the strength. In gratitude, Herennius built a chapel to Hercules at the foot of the
Aventine Hill, near the
Porta Trigemina.[11][12]
Herennius Siculus, a
haruspex, and a friend of
Gaius Sempronius Gracchus, was arrested because of his association with Gracchus; but rather than face the dishonour of imprisonment in the
Tullianum, he bashed his head against the doorpost, and so expired.[29]
Gaius Herennius, the
patron of
Gaius Marius, who was summoned to testify against Marius on a charge of bribery. Herennius refused, on the grounds that it would be unlawful for a patron to do injury to his client. He probably lived near
Arpinum.[17]
Marcus Herennius, consul in 93 BC, who won election against the noted orator
Lucius Marcius Philippus, despite his own humble birth and limited oratorical skill. Large amounts of the expensive medicinal herb
silphium reached Rome during his consulship, probably due to the trading connections of the Herennii.[30][31][32][8]
Titus Herennius, a banker at
Leptis Magna, whom
Verres had put to death during his
praetorship, despite more than one hundred Roman citizens at
Syracuse who attested to his good character and innocence of any crime.[37]
Gaius Herennius, the addressee of a treatise on rhetoric attributed to
Cicero; he does not seem to be identified with any of the other men of this name.[38]
Marcus Herennius, a
decurion at
Pompeii in 63 BC, he was struck and killed by lightning out of a cloudless sky. Under
augural law, this constituted a prodigy, and the event was later viewed as foreshadowing the
treason of Catiline.[39]
Sextus Herennius, father of the tribune.
Gaius Herennius Sex. f., tribune of the plebs in 59 BC, lent considerable support to
Publius Clodius Pulcher, when he illegally procured his adoption into a plebeian gens, in order to obtain the tribunician power.[40]
Lucius Herennius Balbus, assisted
Lucius Sempronius Atratinus in the prosecution of
Marcus Caelius Rufus for vis in 56 BC. Cicero, who was a friend of all three men, successfully defended Caelius in his oration Pro Caelio, in which he asserted that Herennius and Sempronius were being exploited by
Clodia, Caelius' former lover, and the sister of Cicero's enemy, Publius Clodius Pulcher.[v]
Lucius Herennius Balbus, perhaps the same person as the friend of Cicero, demanded that the slaves belonging to
Titus Annius Milo and his wife, Fausta, be tortured in order to obtain evidence concerning the death of Publius Claudius Pulcher.[41][42]
Herennius Gallus, an actor at
Gades, whom
Lucius Cornelius Balbus raised to the rank of an
eques, presenting him with a gold ring, and seating him in the part of the theatre that was reserved for the equites.[43]
Herennius, a young man expelled from the army by
Augustus on account of his profligate habits. Macrobius relates two anecdotes concerning their conversations.[vi]
Marcus Herennius M. f. M. n. Picens, consul suffectus in AD 1.
Herennius Capito,
procurator of
Iamnia during the reign of
Tiberius, arrested
Herod Agrippa for a debt owed to the Imperial treasury, and reported on Herod's conduct when the young man escaped.
Marcus Herennius Secundus, consul suffectus in AD 183.
Herennius Modestinus, a celebrated jurist of the third century AD; he was a pupil of
Ulpian, and considered one of the great jurists in the classical period of Roman law.[54]
Herennia Cupressenia Etruscilla, wife of the emperor
Decius, and Roman empress from AD 249 to 251. She is not mentioned by the historians, but is known from coins and inscriptions bearing her name and likeness.[55][56][57]
Quintus Herennius Etruscus Messius Decius, son of the emperor Decius, was appointed consul in AD 251, and subsequently elevated to the rank of Augustus, becoming emperor together with his father; but both father and son were slain in battle against the
Goths in
Thrace before the end of the year.[58][59]
^From the Tale of the Two Brothers of
Catana, or Pii Fratres, who were regarded as the model of filial piety. Amphinomus carried his father; Anapias (not pictured) carried his mother. They refused to abandon their parents even when it seemed that the lava was about to overtake them due to their burden; but miraculously the lava parted and they were saved.[1] Many copies of this coin still exist.[2]
^For uncertain reasons, silphium disappeared by the reign of
Nero, who is said to have received the last stalk of it as a curiosity; factors in its disappearance probably included overharvesting and a brief fashion for animals fed upon it. The identity of silphium has never been satisfactorily established, although it is depicted on a number of coins from Cyrene; it is generally supposed to have been a variety of Ferula, possibly extinct, but perhaps identical with still extant species, such as Ferula tingitana. These plants resemble depictions of silphium, and share some of the medicinal properties that were ascribed to it.
^Born Minius Cerrinius; he apparently assumed the nomen Herennius as a gamonymic surname following his marriage to a Herennia.
^Sempronius was easily persuaded to prosecute Caelius, who earlier that year had prosecuted Lucius Calpurnius Bestia, supposed by some to have been Sempronius' biological father, on a charge of ambitus (bribery). Clodia, meanwhile, is traditionally identified with
Lesbia, the lover of
Catullus, whose attributes accord somewhat with Cicero's description of Clodia in Pro Caelio.
^"When the order was issued, [Herennius] asked, 'How shall I present myself at home? What can I say to my father?' 'Tell him,' replied Augustus, 'that you did not like me.' Herennius had been scarred on the forehead by a stone, and boasted of it as an honourable wound. But Augustus counselled him: 'Herennius, next time you run away, do not look behind you.' "[44]
References
^
abClaudian, Carmina Minora, "On the Statues of the Two Brothers at Catana".
Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Novus Thesaurus Veterum Inscriptionum (New Treasury of Ancient Inscriptions), Milan (1739-42).
Francesco Scipione, Marchese di Maffei, Museum Veronense, hoc est, Antiquarum Inscriptionum atque Anaglyphorum Collectio (Museum of Verona, or a Collection of Antique Inscriptions and Reliefs).
George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII (1897).
T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, American Philological Association (1952–1986).
E. Mary Smallwood, Documents Illustrating the Principates of Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian, Cambridge University Press (1966).
Paul A. Gallivan, "The Fasti for A.D. 70–96", in Classical Quarterly, vol. 31, pp. 186–220 (1981).
Olli Salomies, Adoptive and Polyonymous Nomenclature in the Roman Empire, Societas Scientiarum Fennica, Helsinki (1992).
John C. Traupman, The New College Latin & English Dictionary (Bantam, 1995).
Werner Eck and Andreas Pangerl, "Neue Diplome mit den Namen von Konsuln und Statthaltern," in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, vol. 187 (2013).