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| Hostilia gens | |
|---|---|
| Name | Hostilia gens |
| Type | Roman gens |
| Origin | Roman Kingdom; Roman Republic; Roman Empire |
| Region | Latium; Rome; Etruria; Campania |
| Notable | Tullus Hostilius; Aulus Hostilius; Decimus Hostilius; Marcus Hostilius |
Hostilia gens was an ancient Roman family with roots in the early Roman Kingdom and continued presence through the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. Associated with legendary kings, republican magistracies, and imperial offices, the family appears in literary sources such as Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Pliny the Elder and in epigraphic material from Rome, Ostia, and Pompeii. Members of the gens were involved in events connected to figures like Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and later interacted with statesmen such as Cicero, Julius Caesar, and Augustus.
Ancient traditions connect the family to the regal period through the king Tullus Hostilius, cited in annalistic narratives by Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and in genealogical notices preserved by Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Classical authors place the gens' origins in Alba Longa and associate its early prestige with wars against Alba Longa and alliances with families like the Fabii, Cornelii, and Aemilii. Later Roman antiquarians such as Varro, Pliny the Elder, and Cassius Dio discuss etymological links and social standing alongside other patrician houses including the Claudius, Valerius, and Manlius gentes.
Common praenomina recorded for family members include Tullus, Aulus, Marcus, Gaius, and Decimus as attested in literary sources and inscriptions found in collections compiled by Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum editors and antiquarians like Theodor Mommsen and Giovanni Battista de Rossi. Cognomina appear sporadically in republican and imperial contexts, linked with branches that held magistracies in Rome and provincial municipalities such as Capua and Neapolis. Prosopographical treatments by scholars interacting with corpora associated with Prosopographia Imperii Romani and commentaries by T. Robert S. Broughton map these branches against the political networks of Marius, Sulla, and Pompey.
The most famous figure traditionally ascribed to the gens is the third Roman king, Tullus Hostilius, known from narratives in Livy and military episodes described by Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Orosius. Republican-era magistrates include individuals named Aulus and Marcus appearing in annals and in legal contexts alongside figures like Cicero, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Gaius Julius Caesar, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Imperial-era inscriptions attested in Ostia and Pompeii record freedmen and municipal officials connected to the gens and interacting with administrators of provinces such as Asia (Roman province), Sicily, and Gaul. Modern prosopographers reference members in catalogues alongside Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio when reconstructing senatorial careers during the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and Domitian.
Narratives crediting Tullus Hostilius emphasize campaigns against neighboring Latin polities, frequenting themes also found in accounts of the Latin League, the sack of Veii, and conflicts with Alba Longa described by Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Republican Hostilii appear in municipal magistracies, military commands, and provincial administration in sources that connect them to operations in Cisalpine Gaul, engagements contemporaneous with the wars of Marius, Sulla, and the civil conflicts involving Caesar and Pompey. Epigraphic attestations show members serving in cohorts and legions documented in military diplomas and lists associated with units deployed to Britannia, Germania, and Syria under commanders such as Germanicus and Agrippa.
Traditional accounts associate the family with cultic and priestly functions during the Regal era as recounted by Livy and antiquarian writers including Varro and Pliny the Elder. In the Republic and Empire, inscriptions indicate priesthoods, membership in collegia, and benefactions to temples dedicated to deities worshipped at sites like the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, the Temple of Vesta, and municipal sanctuaries in Capua and Ostia. Social networks linked Hostilii with elite houses such as the Fabii, Cornelii, and Aemilii, and with patrons and clients recorded in freedmen epitaphs curated in catalogues by scholars of Roman social history.
While no widely circulated denarii explicitly bear the family name as an issuing authority comparable to prominent Republican moneyers like the Aemilius or Licinius families, numismatic evidence occasionally intersects with iconography associated with legendary episodes tied to Tullus Hostilius, as discussed in studies comparing republican coin types and imperial propaganda of Augustus and Nero. Epigraphic corpus entries in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum and municipal fasti from Ostia Antica and Pompeii record funerary inscriptions, civic dedications, and honorific monuments mentioning Hostilii in contexts alongside local magistrates, collegia, and provincial governors such as those documented in inscriptions connected to Asia (Roman province), Africa Proconsularis, and Sicilia.