Saltia gens

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

Origin

The nomen Saltius might be derived from the Latin saltare, to dance. The nomen Saltorius was derived from the related saltor, a dancer.[2] Alternatively, Saltius might be derived from saltus, a glade or ravine.[3]

Members

  • Sextus Saltius, together with Lucius Considius, one of the commissioners appointed to establish a colony at Capua in 83 BC. Cicero described their conduct as arrogant, and ridiculed them for their errors.[4]
  • Publius Saltius Mysticus, probably a freedman, was a friend of Lucius Aelius Macer, one of the Seviri Augustales at Patavium in Venetia and Histria.[5]
  • Saltia Euthycia, probably a freedwoman, one of the friends of Lucius Aelius Macer, named in his funerary inscription.[5]
  • Gaius Saltius Victor, a soldier in the third legion, stationed at Lambaesis in Numidia in AD 173.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 700 ("Sextus Saltius").
  2. ^ Chase, p. 131.
  3. ^ New College Latin & English Dictionary, s. v. salto, saltus.
  4. ^ Cicero, De Lege Agraria, ii. 34.
  5. ^ a b CIL V, 2844.
  6. ^ CIL VIII, 18068.

Bibliography

  • Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Lege Agraria contra Rullum.
  • 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).
  • George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII, pp. 103–184 (1897).
  • John C. Traupman, The New College Latin & English Dictionary, Bantam Books, New York (1995).