The gens Salvidiena was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned toward the end of the Republic, and from then to the end of the second century they regularly filled the highest offices of the Roman state.

Origin

The nomen Salvidienus belongs to a class of gentilicia formed primarily from other gentile names using the suffix -enus. The root is Salvidius, itself presumably formed from the Oscan praenomen Salvius, using the suffix -idius.^[1]

Praenomina

The Salvidieni regularly used the praenomina Gaius, Lucius, Marcus, and Quintus, four of the most common names throughout Roman history. At least one branch of the family used the more distinctive Servius, which may have been inherited from the Cornelii; the only members of this gens to bear the name without also bearing the nomen Cornelius were probably related to this family, or descended from its freedmen. A Salvidienus from Samnium bore the praenomen Vibius, which was scarce at Rome, although more common in Oscan-speaking parts of Italy.^[2]

Branches and cognomina

The only distinct family of the Salvidieni under the Republic bore the surname Rufus, originally given to someone with red hair, perhaps with the additional surname Salvius, originally an Oscan praenomen, but later a gentile name, and evidently also a cognomen. In its extended form, Salvianus, it appears in the nomenclature of Lucius Salvidienus Rufus, consul in AD 52.^[3] The only other distinct family of the Salvidieni claimed descent from the illustrious house of the Cornelii Scipiones, and flourished during the first and second centuries. They more properly belong to the Cornelian gens, although they retained Salvidienus as part of their nomenclature for as long as the family is known from inscriptions.

Members

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

• Quintus Salvidienus Rufus, a close friend and advisor to Octavian, and one of his most trusted generals in the years following the death of Caesar. But after fighting against Sextus Pompeius, then Lucius Antonius during the Perusine War, he made overtures to Marcus Antonius, who betrayed Salvidienus to Octavian. Salvidienus was recalled to Rome, and condemned to death.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]}
• Salvidiena Q. f. Rufa, named in an inscription from Rome, dating to the latter part of the first century BC, or the early part of the first century AD.^[10]
• Gaius Salvidienus Augustalis, built a first-century tomb at Rome for his son, Gaius Salvidienus Lucifer.^[11]
• Gaius Salvidienus C. f. Lucifer, buried at Rome, in a first-century tomb built by his father, Gaius Salvidienus Augustalis, and wife, Salvidiena Helpis.^[11]
• Salvidiena Helpis, dedicated a first-century tomb at Rome to her husband, Gaius Salvidienus Lucifer.^[11]
• Lucius Salvidienus Rufus Salvianus, consul suffectus in AD 52.^[12][13]
• Gaius Salvidienus Primigenius, a soldier stationed at Rome in AD 70, serving in the century of Tiberius Claudius Nicia.^[14]
• Marcus Salvidienus Asprenas, proconsul of Bithynia during the reign of Vespasian, minted various coins under the Flavian emperors.^[15]
• Marcus Salvidienus Proculus, governor of Bithynia under Vespasian, and a moneyer under the Flavians, might be the same person as Asprenas, or perhaps his brother.^[16]
• Salvidiena Musa, named in a second-century inscription from Rome, together with Gaius Salvidienus Priscus and Gaius Salvidienus Jucundus.^[17]
• Gaius Salvidienus Priscus, named in a second-century inscription from Rome, together with Salvidiena Musa and Gaius Salvidienus Jucundus.^[17]
• Gaius Salvidienus Jucundus, named in a second-century inscription from Rome, together with Salvidiena Musa and Gaius Salvidienus Priscus.^[17]
• Marcus Salvidienus, one of the sources of Vopiscus for the life of the usurper Saturninus. Salvidienus reported that the speech attributed to Saturninus at Alexandria had been written by the general himself, as he was a man of some learning and rhetorical skill.^[18]

See also

• List of Roman gentes

References

Bibliography

• Titus Livius (Livy), History of Rome.
• Marcus Velleius Paterculus, Compendium of Roman History.
• Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum (Lives of the Caesars, or The Twelve Caesars).
• Appianus Alexandrinus (Appian), Bellum Civile (The Civil War).
• Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus (Cassius Dio), Roman History.
• Aelius Lampridius, Aelius Spartianus, Flavius Vopiscus, Julius Capitolinus, Trebellius Pollio, and Vulcatius Gallicanus, Historia Augusta (Augustan History).
• 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).
• Supplementa Italica (Supplement for Italy), Unione Accademica Nazionale.
• 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, pp. 103–184 (1897).
• Paul von Rohden, Elimar Klebs, & Hermann Dessau, Prosopographia Imperii Romani (The Prosopography of the Roman Empire, abbreviated PIR), Berlin (1898).
• Joyce M. Reynolds, J. B. Ward-Perkins, The Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania, British School at Rome (1952).
• T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, American Philological Association (1952–1986).
• E. Mary Smallwood, Documents Illustrating the Principates of Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian, Cambridge University Press (1966).
• Géza Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand unter der Antonien (The Consulate and Senatorial State under the Antonines), Rudolf Habelt, Bonn (1977).
• Paul A. Gallivan, "The Fasti for the Reign of Claudius", in Classical Quarterly, vol. 28, pp. 407–426 (1978), "The Fasti for A.D. 70–96", in Classical Quarterly, vol. 31, pp. 186–220 (1981).
• Werner Eck, "Die Fasti consulares der Regierungszeit des Antoninus Pius, eine Bestandsaufnahme seit Géza Alföldys Konsulat und Senatorenstand" (The Consular Fasti for the Reign of Antoninus Pius: an Inventory since Géza Alföldy's Konsulat und Senatorenstand), in Studia Epigraphica in Memoriam Géza Alföldy, Werner Eck, Bence Fehér, Péter Kovács, eds., Bonn, pp. 69–90 (2013).