The gens Rullia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. No members of this gens are mentioned in history, but a number are known from inscriptions.

Origin

The nomen Rullius is derived from the cognomen Rullus, a beggar. The surname is better known in its derivative form, Rullianus, from Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus, one of the greatest statesmen and generals of the Roman Republic, who as a young man defied the orders of the dictator Lucius Papirius Cursor by engaging the enemy while his commander was away, winning a famous victory, but was then obliged to beg the Roman people to spare his life, when Cursor declared it forfeit.^[1] Chase classifies Rullius among those gentilicia that either originated at Rome, or cannot be shown to have come from anywhere else.^[2]

Praenomina

The main praenomina of the Rulii were Gaius and Gnaeus, although there are also instances of Servius and Sextus. Servius was an uncommon name, although not especially rare; it tended to run in families. All of the others were quite common throughout Roman history.

Members

This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.

• Rullia, named in an inscription from Tusculum in Latium.^[3]
• Alaucus Rullius, probably a slave, named in an inscription Canusium in Apulia.^[4]
• Servius Rullius C. s., a slave named in an inscription from Canusium.^[5]
• Rullia Ɔ. l. Adepta, a freedwoman, built a tomb at Casilinum in Campania for herself, her husband, Publius Brittius Epicius, and Gaius Rullius Communis, dating to the first half of the first century AD.^[6]
• Rullia Agathe, buried at Rome, with a monument from her husband, Gaius Rullius Felix.^[7]
• Gnaeus Rullius Calais, one of the Seviri Augustales at Aesernia in Samnium, where he built a tomb for himself and his wife, Maria, the slave of Corinthidius.^[8]
• Gnaeus Rullius Ɔ. l. Ceramylla, a freedman buried at Rome, together with Rullia Proposis.^[9]
• Gaius Rullius Ɔ. l. Communis, a freedman buried at Casilinum, in a tomb built by Rullia Adepta.^[6]
• Gaius Rullius Felix, dedicated a tomb at Rome to his wife, Rullia Agathe.^[7]
• Gnaeus Rullius Felix, named among the members of one of the artisanal guilds at Ostia in AD 173.^[10]
• Rullia Sp. f. Galla, buried at Aquileia in Venetia and Histria, in a tomb built by Lucius Cluvius Ingenuus, perhaps her husband.^[11]
• Rullia Inventa, aged twenty, buried at Rome during the second century AD, with a tomb dedicated by her husband, Gaius Arminius Hermes.^[12][13]
• Rullius Lysimachus, named in an inscription from Canusium in Apulia.^[14]
• Rullia C. f. Maximilla, one of the children of Gaius Rullius Maximus, who dedicated a tomb to their father at Vibinum in Apulia.^[15]
• Rullius C. f. Maximus, one of the children of Gaius Rullius Maximus, who dedicated a tomb to their father at Vibinum.^[15]
• Gaius Rullius Maximus, one of the municipal duumvirs at Vibinum, where he was buried with a tomb dedicated by his children, Maximus, Priscus, and Maximilla.^[15]
• Rullius Princeps, named in an inscription from Rome, dating to the first half of the first century AD.^[16]
• Rullius C. f. Priscus, one of the children of Gaius Rullius Maximus, who dedicated a tomb to their father at Vibinum.^[15]
• Sextus Rullius Ɔ. l. Princeps, a freedman, built a tomb at Rome for himself and his family.^[17]
• Rullia Cn. l. Proposis, a freedwoman buried at Rome, together with Gnaeus Rullius Ceramylla.^[9]
• Gaius Rullius Sp. f. Rufus, named in an inscription from Atina in Latium.^[18]
• Rullia Vitalis, together with Maniaca Ursilla and Flavius Niceros, dedicated a late second century tomb at Rome to Ursilla's son, Quintus Vibulenus Arruntianus, a soldier in the fourth cohort of the vigiles at Rome, aged twenty-one, having served in the vigiles for five years and two months.^[19]