The gens Aulia was a Roman family during the period of the Republic. The gens was probably plebeian, but only a few members are known to history. The most illustrious of the family was Quintus Aulius Cerretanus, who obtained the consulship twice, in 323 and 319 BC, during the Second Samnite War.[1]
The nomen Aulius is a patronymic surname, derived from the praenomen Aulus, just as Sextius was derived from Sextus, Marcius from Marcus, and Quinctius from Quintus.[1][2] Although there were Aulii at Rome in the fourth century BC, the gens may have been spread throughout Latium, as one of them was prefect of the allies during the Second Punic War.[1][3] The surname Cerretanus may point to an Etruscan origin, and at least some scholars believe that the praenomen Aulus is itself Etruscan, although in historical times the name was among the most common of Roman praenomina.[4]
The most famous member of the Aulii bore the praenomen Quintus, as did his father and grandfather.[5] However, the 315 BC entry in the Fasti Capitolini for the consular Aulius preserves the enigmatic filiation "Ai. n.", which meaning has not been explained, as no known praenomen can be shortened as such. Attilio Degrassi, Robert Broughton and others have therefore considered that there were two homonymous men with a different grandfather active at the end of the 4th century BC.[6][7] Stephen Oakley nevertheless writes that this unique occurrence is a proof of the praenomen's authenticity, and that there was only one Aulius at the time.[8]
A later Aulius was named Manius. Although no members by the name are known, the ancestor of the gens must have been called Aulus.[1][2]
The only cognomen associated with any of the Aulii is Cerretanus.[1] This surname seems to belong to a class of names derived from various peoples, in this case a tribe known as the Cerretani; but the only Cerretani known from historical times were an Iberian tribe. In this instance, Cerretanus seems more likely to be an orthographic variant of Caeretanus, referring to an inhabitant of the Etruscan city of Caere, or perhaps someone who had lived along the river Caeretanus, the modern Vaccina, which flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea below Caere.[9]