The gens Postumulena was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Few members of this gens are mentioned in history, but others are known from inscriptions.[1]

Origin edit

The nomen Postumulenus belongs to a class of names formed primarily from other gentilicia, using the suffix -enus.[2] In this case, the nomen is a lengthened form of Postumius, derived from the old Latin praenomen Postumus. This name is derived from the adjective postremus, "hindmost" or "last", and originally referred to a last-born child, although in later times it was confused with posthumus, "after burial", being applied to children born after their fathers' death.[3]

Praenomina edit

The only praenomina associated with the Postumuleni are Lucius, Marcus, and Gaius, the three most common names throughout Roman history, and perhaps Publius, known from a filiation, and also very common.

Members edit

This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.
  • Postumulenus, mentioned by Cicero as a friend of someone named Trebianus or Trebonius.[4]
  • Marcus Postumulenus, the freedman of Jucundus, buried at Carthage in Africa Proconsularis.[5]
  • Postumulena P. l. Agapema, buried at Trebula Mutusca in Sabinum.[6]
  • Postumulenus Atimetus, patron of Postumulena Symmone, who built a tomb for him at Ostia in Latium.[7]
  • Postumulena Chara, wife of Lucius Postumulenus Thalamus, who built a tomb for himself and his wife at Portus in Latium.[8]
  • Marcus Postumulenus Fidelis, built a tomb at Rome for his nephew, Marcus Memmius Rufus, aged five years, three months, and eleven days.[9]
  • Postumulena C. f. Ingenua, daughter of Gaius Postumulenus Ingenuus and Tuccia Trophime.[10]
  • Gaius Postumulenus Ingenuus, husband of Tuccia Trophime, and father of Postumulena Ingenua, buried with his wife at Rome.[10]
  • Lucius Postumulenus L. Ɔ. l. Mama, a freedman buried at Rome.[11]
  • Lucius Postumulenus Nicephorus, husband of Nonia Verecunda, and father of Sotidia Maxima, buried in a family sepulchre at Canusium in Apulia, dating to the first or second centuries AD.[12]
  • Gaius Postumulenus Paullus, named in an inscription from Narnia in Umbria.[13]
  • Lucius Postumulenus Primitivus, husband of Curtilia Glyconis, who dedicated a tomb for him at Rome.[14]
  • Postumulena Ɔ. l. Rufa, a freedwoman buried at Rome.[15]
  • Postumulena L. f. Sabina, buried at Ateste in Venetia and Histria.[16]
  • Marcus Postumulenus Secundus, a soldier serving in the century of Decimus Roetius Secundus at Rome in AD 70.[17]
  • Postumulena Symmone, client of Postumulenus Atimetus, for whom she built a tomb at Ostia.[7]
  • Lucius Postumulenus Thalamus, built a tomb at Portus for himself and his wife, Postumulena Chara.[8]
  • Postumulena Ɔ. l. Vitalis, buried at Ateste.[18]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 510 ("Postumulenus").
  2. ^ Chase, p. 118.
  3. ^ Chase, pp. 111, 131, 150.
  4. ^ Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, vi. 10.
  5. ^ BCTH, 1913 CLXXII.
  6. ^ AE 1964, 29.
  7. ^ a b CIL XIV, 4160.
  8. ^ a b AE 2007, 301.
  9. ^ CIL VI, 22366.
  10. ^ a b CIL VI, 24895.
  11. ^ NSA, 1923-371.
  12. ^ CIL IX, 397.
  13. ^ CIL XI, 4116.
  14. ^ AE 1971, 57.
  15. ^ CIL VI, 24896.
  16. ^ AE 1997, 604.
  17. ^ CIL VI, 200.
  18. ^ AE 2002, 562.

Bibliography edit

  • Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares.
  • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
  • Theodor Mommsen et alii, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated CIL), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–present).
  • Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità (News of Excavations from Antiquity, abbreviated NSA), Accademia dei Lincei (1876–present).
  • Bulletin Archéologique du Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques (Archaeological Bulletin of the Committee on Historic and Scientific Works, abbreviated BCTH), Imprimerie Nationale, Paris (1885–1973).
  • René Cagnat et alii, L'Année épigraphique (The Year in Epigraphy, abbreviated AE), Presses Universitaires de France (1888–present).
  • George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII (1897).