Gallia gens

The gens Gallia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Several members of this gens are mentioned during the first century BC.^[1]

Origin[]

The nomen Gallius might be derived from Gallus, a common surname that can refer either to a cock or someone of Gallic origin.

Among the Gallii we find the praenomina Quintus, Marcus, and Gaius, all of which were common throughout Roman history.^[1]

The Gallii do not appear to have been divided into distinct families, and none of those known during the late Republic bore any surnames.

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

Quintus Gallius, praetor urbanus in 63 BC, had been accused of ambitus by Marcus Calidius the previous year, and was successfully defended by Cicero. As praetor he presided over the trial of Gaius Cornelius, one of Catiline's conspirators.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]
Marcus Gallius Axianus, adopted from the Axia gens.^[6]
Marcus Gallius Q. f., praetor in an uncertain year, and a supporter of Marcus Antonius. He adopted the future emperor Tiberius in his youth, and left him a considerable legacy.^[7]^[8]
Quintus Gallius Q. f., officer under the proconsul Quintus Marcius Philippus in 47–46 BC. Praetor in 43 BC, he was arrested and put to death by Octavian on the apparently false suspicion of intending to murder him, although Octavian later claimed that Gallius had merely been commended into the care of his brother, and disappeared.^[9]^[10]^[11]
Gaius Gallius, a person mentioned by Valerius Maximus as having been scourged to death by Sempronius Musca, who caught him in the act of adultery.^[12]
Gaius Gallius Lupercus, minted copper sestertii in 15 BC.^[13]

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, pp. 221, 222 ("Gallius").
^ Cicero, Brutus, 80.
^ Quintus Cicero, De Petitione Consulatus, 5.
^ Asconius, In Toga Candida, p. 88 (ed. Orelli), In Cornelio, p. 62 (ed. Orelli).
^ Valerius Maximus, viii. 10. § 3.
^ Shackleton-Bailey, D. R. (2004). Cicero: Letters to Atticus: Volume 6, Books 14-16. Cambridge University Press. p. 278. ISBN 9780521606905.
^ Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, x. 15, xi. 20, Philippicae, xiii. 12.
^ Suetonius, "Life of Tiberius", 6.
^ Suetonius, "Life of Augustus", 27.
^ Appian, Bellum Civile, iii. 95.
^ Broughton, vol. 2, pp. 290, 338, 570.
^ Valerius Maximus, vi. 1. § 13.
^ Zograf, "Ancient Coins of the Northern Black Sea Littoral, p. 402.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Brutus, Epistulae ad Atticum, Epistulae ad Familiares, Philippicae.
Quintus Tullius Cicero, De Petitione Consulatus (attributed).
Quintus Asconius Pedianus, Commentarius in Oratio Ciceronis In Toga Candida, Commentarius in Oratio Ciceronis In Cornelio.
Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium (Memorable Facts and Sayings).
Appianus Alexandrinus (Appian), Bellum Civile (The Civil War).
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (Suetonius), De Vita Caesarum (Lives of the Caesars, or The Twelve Caesars).
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
Aleksandr Zograf, The Ancient Coins of the Northern Black Sea Littoral, British Archaeological Reports (1977), ISBN 9780904531879.