The gens Catia was a plebeian family at Rome from the time of the Second Punic War to the 3rd century AD. The gens achieved little importance during the Republic, but held several consulships in imperial times.

Origin

The Catii may have been of Vestinian origin; Gaius Catius, who served under Marcus Antonius, is said to have belonged to this ancient race.[1] However, members of the family were already at Rome by the time of the Second Punic War, when Quintus Catius was plebeian aedile.[2] The philosopher Catius was an Insuber, a native of Gallia Transpadana, and may have been a freedman of the gens, or perhaps his name arose by coincidence.[3] The nomen Catius itself may perhaps be related to a Roman divinity of that name, invoked for the purpose of granting children thoughtfulness and prudence.[3] The nomen Cattius, found in imperial times, may be a variation.[4]

Members

Footnotes

  1. ^ Niebuhr, in his Life of Cornelius Fronto, supposes him to be the same Fronto spoken of by Juvenal, who owned the house of the poet Horatius.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, x. 23.
  2. ^ a b Livy, xxvii. 6, 43, xxviii. 45.
  3. ^ a b c Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 634 ("Catius").
  4. ^ a b c d e f Mennen, pp. 69, 93–95, 133.
  5. ^ Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, xv. 16.
  6. ^ Quintilian, x. 1. § 24.
  7. ^ Horace, Satirae, 1, 2, 95 sq.
  8. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 824 ("C. Silius Italicus").
  9. ^ a b c d PIR, vol. I, p. 321.
  10. ^ a b Grainger, pp. 7–11.
  11. ^ Seneca the Elder, Suasoriae, 2, 16.
  12. ^ Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, ii. 11, iv. 9, vi. 13.
  13. ^ PIR, vol. i. p. 320.
  14. ^ Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, 4, 7.
  15. ^ Corpus Juris Civilis, 2. tit. 19. s. 7; 9. tit. 32. s. 3, et alibi.
  16. ^ PIR, vol. i. p. 323.

Bibliography

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