"Tullius" redirects here. For the asteroid, see
15869 Tullius.
The gens Tullia was a family at
ancient Rome, with both
patrician and
plebeian branches. The first of this
gens to obtain the
consulship was
Manius Tullius Longus in 500 BC, but the most illustrious of the family was
Marcus Tullius Cicero, the statesman, orator, and scholar of the first century BC. The earliest of the Tullii who appear in history were patrician, but all of the Tullii mentioned in later times were plebeian, and some of them were descended from
freedmen.[1] The English form Tully, often found in older works, especially in reference to Cicero, is now considered antiquated.
Origin
The
nomenTullius is a patronymic surname, derived from the old
LatinpraenomenTullus, probably from a root meaning to support, bear, or help.[2] The Tullii of the
Republic sometimes claimed descent from
Servius Tullius, the sixth
King of Rome, who according to some traditions was the son of Servius Tullius, a prince of
Corniculum who was slain in battle against the Romans under
Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth Roman king.[3] However, the Roman historians report that the Tullii were one of the
Alban noble families that came to Rome after the destruction of their city during the reign of
Tullus Hostilius, the third King of Rome.[4] This would probably make the Tullii one of the gentes minores, the lesser patrician houses of the Republic.[1][5]
Praenomina
The main praenomina used by the Tullii were Marcus and Lucius. To these, the Tullii Cicerones added Quintus. Manius is found only among the patrician Tullii at the beginning of the Republic, and there are individual instances of Sextus and Tiberius.
Branches and cognomina
The patrician Tullii bore the
cognomenLongus, tall, but only one of them appears in history.[6] The notable plebeian families bore the surnames Decula and Cicero. The latter, among the most famous of Roman cognomina, belongs to a common class of surnames derived from familiar objects.[7] This family came from
Arpinum, the inhabitants of which were granted
Roman citizenship in 188 BC. Plutarch reports that the surname was given to an ancestor of the orator, who had a cleft in the tip of his nose in the shape of a chickpea, or cicer. At the beginning of his career, Cicero was urged to adopt a more auspicious surname, but he declined, stating that he would make the name famous.[8] Most other surnames found with the Tullii of the Republic belonged to freedmen, but a number of the family bore no cognomen.[1][9]
Members
This list includes abbreviated
praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see
filiation.
Early Tullii
Servius Tullius, according to one tradition, the prince of Corniculum, husband of Ocrisia, and father of Servius Tullius, the sixth King of Rome, fell in battle when Corniculum was taken by Lucius Tarquinius Priscus.[10][11]
Marcus Tullius,[i] a duumvir sacris faciundis in the reign of
Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last King of Rome, was paid by a certain Petronius Sabinus to allow him to copy one of the
Sibylline books. The king punished Tullius by having him sewn into a leather sack, and cast into the sea.[20][21]
Manius Tullius Longus,
consul in 500 BC, besieged the city of
Fidenae when its inhabitants revolted, but withdrew his army when the Fidenates sought to negotiate a peace. He and his colleague then suppressed a conspiracy to restore the Tarquins. While opening the
Ludi Romani, Tullius was badly injured when he fell from his chariot. He died three days later.[22][23][24][25]
Marcus Tullius Cicero, grandfather of the orator, was one of the leading men of Arpinum. In 115 BC, the consul
Marcus Aemilius Scaurus complimented him on his industry and foresight when he and his brother-in-law, Marcus Gratidius, petitioned on behalf of their city for the right to vote by ballot.[34]
Marcus Tullius M. f. Cicero, father of the orator Cicero, was a learned man of literary interests, and moved to Rome in order to provide the best of education for his sons. He kept company with the leading orators and jurists of his day, and died in 64 BC, the year his son was elected consul.[35]
Lucius Tullius M. f. Cicero, uncle of the orator, was a close friend of
Marcus Antonius, the orator, with whom he traveled to
Cilicia during the latter's government there. He provided his nephew with regular correspondence for a number of years.[36]
Marcus Tullius M. f. M. n. Cicero, the
orator, was consul in 63 BC, when he suppressed
the conspiracy of
Catiline, although he was later exiled for having put the conspirators to death without a trial. After his recall, he generally opposed the
first triumvirate, and
Caesar in particular, although Caesar deeply admired him, and gladly pardoned him for siding with his enemies. He played no part in Caesar's assassination, but was friend and advisor to the conspirators, and placed himself in opposition to the
second triumvirate, by which he was proscribed and put to death. Cicero was the most eminent of the Roman orators, and one of the leading scholars of Roman history and institutions. His vast body of surviving speeches, treatises, and correspondence forms one of the most important sources of Roman history.[37]
Quintus Tullius M. f. M. n. Cicero, the younger brother of Cicero, was
praetor in 62 BC, and subsequently governor of
Asia. He was one of Caesar's generals during the
Gallic Wars, but later supported
Pompeius during the
Civil War. After Caesar's murder, he was proscribed and put to death by the triumvirs.
Lucius Tullius L. f. M. n. Cicero, the cousin and close friend of the orator, whom he accompanied to Athens in 79 BC, and assisted during the trial of
Verres. The people of
Syracuse honoured him for his efforts on their behalf. Marcus was deeply aggrieved when Lucius died in 68, while still a young man.[38]
Tullia M. f. M. n., or Tulliola, the beloved daughter of Cicero, married first Gaius Calpurnius Piso Frugi, who died in 57 BC, then briefly to Furius Crassipes, whom she divorced, then in 50 to
Publius Cornelius Dolabella, by whom she had two sons; one who died in infancy, and another, Lentulus, who probably died in childhood. Tullia and Dolabella were divorced before the birth of their second son, and she died shortly afterward, to her father's great sorrow.[40][41]
Quintus Tullius Q. f. M. n. Cicero, son of Quintus Cicero, attempted to hide his father from the triumvirs, and was tortured, then put to death along with his father, who gave himself up in the hope of saving his son.
Marcus Tullius, claimed that his neighbor, Publius Fabius, with whom he was engaged in a property dispute, had murdered several of his slaves. Cicero spoke on his behalf in a partially-preserved speech. He does not seem to be identified with any of the other Marci Tullii known from this period of history.[46]
Lucius Tullius, an eques, was leader of those who collected the taxes from the scriptura, the cattle grazed upon public land, in
Sicily in the time of Verres.[47]
Lucius Tullius, a friend of
Titus Pomponius Atticus, served as a
legate under Cicero during his government of Cilicia. Cicero did not consider his performance adequate.[48]
Marcus Tullius M. l. Tiro, a scribe and freedman of Cicero, became a notable author in his own right. He wrote on the
Latin language, and a life of Cicero, which has been lost; he may have been the chief compiler and preserver of Cicero's correspondence. He was credited with inventing a variety of shorthand, and to have lived to the age of one hundred.[49][50][51][52][53][54][55]
Marcus Tullius M. f. Laurea, apparently the same man as Laurea Tullius, a freedman of Cicero, who was known for his
elegiac poetry, and several epigrams that have survived to the modern day.[v][56][57][58][59][60]
Tullius Rufus, a partisan of Pompeius, who was killed at the
Battle of Thapsus in 46 BC. He had been
quaestor, but the year is uncertain.
Tiberius Tullius, a partisan of Pompeius during the war in Spain, in 45 BC.[61]
Tullius Bassus, or possibly Julius Bassus, a writer on medicine and botany, perhaps belonging to the early first century.[62][63][64]
Lucius Tullius Montanus, a companion of the younger Marcus Tullius Cicero on his journey to
Athens in 45 BC.[65]
Lucius Tullius Cimber, a misreading of
Lucius Tillius Cimber, one of Caesar's assassins.
Tullius Senecio, one of
Nero's friends, who joined in the
Pisonian conspiracy, and was forced to take his own life after his participation was discovered.[66]
Tullius Flavianus, a cavalry commander serving under
Quintus Petillius Cerialis during the civil war between
Vitellius and
Vespasian. He was captured by Vitellius while fighting in the neighborhood of Rome.[67]
Tullius Valentinus, one of the leaders of the
Treveri in AD 70, during the
Batavian Rebellion. He joined with
Julius Tutor in opposing Quintus Petillius Cerialis, and put to death the legates of two
legions that had surrendered to
Julius Classicus, but was captured by Cerealis at
Rigodulum, and was sent to
Mucianus and
Domitian, by whom he was put to death.[68]
Tullius Geminus, a poet whose epigrams are preserved in the Greek Anthology. The surviving examples describe works of art, and display a number of affectations. A few epigrams attributed solely to Tullius might have been authored by either Tullius Geminus or Marcus Tullius Laurea.[70][71][72]
^Perhaps the same person as Manius Tullius Longus, the consul of 500 BC, although Longus is supposed to have died during his consulship; the connection of this name with the mysterious events of 486 is uncertain.[26]
^Broughton explains that Festus refers to such an incident, but the manuscript explaining it is defective. Valerius Maximus says that Publius Mucius, a tribune of the plebs, burned nine of his colleagues for conspiring with Cassius, but Broughton notes that there were probably not ten tribunes of the plebs at this period, and that most or all of the names given by Festus belong to patricians, seven of them apparently corresponding with those of former consuls, so Broughton concludes that they were not tribunes of the plebs, although they might have been
military tribunes, and that the nature of the event in question is not at all certain.
^Livy and Zonaras give Tullius, which is preferred by modern historians, but Dionysius calls him Tullus Attius, giving the form normally used as a praenomen, while Plutarch calls him Tullus Aufidius. Attius is a known praenomen, most familiar from Attius Clausus, the
Sabine nobleman who removed to Rome, where he was known as
Appius Claudius. However, Attius is also found as a nomen gentilicium in
imperial times.
^A misreading of M. Tullius appears to have led to Laurea's epigrams being attributed to Satullius and Tatullius.
References
^
abcDictionary of Greek and Roman Biography & Mythology, vol. III, p. 1183 ("
Tullia Gens").
Johann Albert Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, sive Notitia Scriptorum Veterum Graecorum (The Greek Library, or Knowledge of Ancient Greek Writers), Christian Liebezeit & Theodor Christoph Felginer, Hamburg (1718).
Analecta Veterum Poetarum Graecorum (Fragments by Ancient Greek Poets),
Richard François Philippe Brunck, ed., Bauer and Treuttel, Strasbourg (1772–1776).
Anthologia Graeca sive Poetarum Graecorum Lusus, ex Recensione Brunckii (The Greek Anthology, or Works of the Greek Poets, or the Collection of
Brunck), Friedrich Jacobs, ed., Dyck, Leipzig (1794).
Barthold Georg Niebuhr, The History of Rome, Julius Charles Hare and Connop Thirlwall, trans., John Smith, Cambridge (1828).
Wilhelm Drumann, Geschichte Roms in seinem Übergang von der republikanischen zur monarchischen Verfassung, oder: Pompeius, Caesar, Cicero und ihre Zeitgenossen, Königsberg (1834–1844).
George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII, pp. 103–184 (1897).
T.P. Wiseman, "Legendary Genealogies in Late-Republican Rome," in Greece & Rome, vol. 21 (1974).
Michael Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, Cambridge University Press (1974, 2001).
Werner Eck & Peter Weiß, "Hadrianische Konsuln. Neue Zeugnisse aus Militärdiplomen" (Hadrianic Consuls: New Evidence from Military Diplomas), in Chiron, vol. 32 (2002).
Treggiari, Susan (2007). Terentia, Tullia and Publilia: The Women of Cicero's Family. Women of the Ancient World (illustrated ed.). Routledge.
ISBN9781134264575.