Annaeii

[Caesar CXXXVII]

Got confused, just how many Annaeii were executed/commited suicide/prosecuted in 65-66 ?

[Primus Pilus]

Got confused, just how many Annaeii were executed/commited suicide/prosecuted in 65-66 ?

 

Tacitus mentions:

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Annals 15.60-64)

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (Ann. 15.70)

Annaeus Mela (Ann. 16.17)

 

Suetonius more dramatically claims that all the children of the accused were also executed but provides no names:

Life of Nero, 36

In a quick scan I don't see any specifics other than Seneca himself

 

Cassius Dio mentions:

Seneca (History 62.25)

Annaeus Cornutus was exiled (62.29) but this was unrelated to the plot against Nero

 

Like Tacitus Dio, claims that many were killed, but the details are missing.

 

That's all I could get through at the moment...

[Caesar CXXXVII]

Got confused, just how many Annaeii were executed/commited suicide/prosecuted in 65-66 ?

 

Tacitus mentions:

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Annals 15.60-64)

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (Ann. 15.70)

Annaeus Mela (Ann. 16.17)

 

Suetonius more dramatically claims that all the children of the accused were also executed but provides no names:

Life of Nero, 36

In a quick scan I don't see any specifics other than Seneca himself

 

Cassius Dio mentions:

Seneca (History 62.25)

Annaeus Cornutus was exiled (62.29) but this was unrelated to the plot against Nero

 

Like Tacitus Dio, claims that many were killed, but the details are missing.

 

That's all I could get through at the moment...

 

Thanks . Did they mentioned any familiy connections ? Lucanus was Seneca's son, didn't he ? And Mela, This is his first and last appearance ?

[Nephele]

Thanks . Did they mentioned any familiy connections ? Lucanus was Seneca's son, didn't he ? And Mela, This is his first and last appearance ?

 

Lucanus was the son of Mela, and the nephew of Seneca (the Younger). See Tacitus, Annals, 16.17:

 

Mela, son of the same parents as Gallio and Seneca... He had too in his son Annaeus Lucanus a powerful aid in rising to distinction.

 

-- Nephele

[Caesar CXXXVII]

Thanks . Did they mentioned any familiy connections ? Lucanus was Seneca's son, didn't he ? And Mela, This is his first and last appearance ?

 

Lucanus was the son of Mela, and the nephew of Seneca (the Younger). See Tacitus, Annals, 16.17:

 

Mela, son of the same parents as Gallio and Seneca... He had too in his son Annaeus Lucanus a powerful aid in rising to distinction.

 

-- Nephele

 

 

O.K.

Why the different cognomina ?

[Nephele]

O.K.

Why the different cognomina ?

 

Not all Roman cognomina were hereditary, and often Romans would adopt cognomina as nicknames. Although Lucanus was born in Spain, he was brought to Rome at an early age for his education. He may have acquired the cognomen of "Lucanus" due to an association with the region of Lucania in southern Italy.

 

Possibly even (and this is pure speculation), he may have assumed the cognomen of Lucanus for himself out of an affectation -- as Lucanus was a poet and the great Roman poet Horace had been born in a town on the borders of Lucania and Apulia, sometimes referring to himself as "Lucanus an Appulus anceps" on that account.

 

-- Nephele

[Caesar CXXXVII]

O.K.

Why the different cognomina ?

 

Not all Roman cognomina were hereditary, and often Romans would adopt cognomina as nicknames. Although Lucanus was born in Spain, he was brought to Rome at an early age for his education. He may have acquired the cognomen of "Lucanus" due to an association with the region of Lucania in southern Italy.

 

Possibly even (and this is pure speculation), he may have assumed the cognomen of Lucanus for himself out of an affectation -- as Lucanus was a poet and the great Roman poet Horace had been born in a town on the borders of Lucania and Apulia, sometimes referring to himself as "Lucanus an Appulus anceps" on that account.

 

-- Nephele

 

Aha I say !

 

Did the practice of self adopting nicknames was a late Republic/early Empire one ?

 

If you can, a list of Lucani ? It was a common cognomen, a rare one ?

 

TIA (that is, Thanks in advance)

[Nephele]

Aha I say !

 

Did the practice of self adopting nicknames was a late Republic/early Empire one ?

 

I believe nickname cognomina were generally bestowed by one's peers, but I'm sure one can often find an exception to every rule. No doubt there existed some Roman citizens with the presumption to nickname themselves. As I'd said previously, my guess was pure speculation that Lucanus might have self-adopted his cognomen in a desire to perhaps associate himself with an earlier, famous poet. Or, perhaps even the cognomen was bestowed upon him by his peers, for that very same reason.

 

If you can, a list of Lucani ? It was a common cognomen, a rare one ?

 

I don't know if "Lucanus" can be counted as a common cognomen, but Iiro Kajanto, in his work The Latin Cognomina, notes a C. Terentius Lucanus, a mint officer of circa 135/4 BCE. Also bearing the cognomen of "Lucanus" are noted 5 senators, 122 citizens, and 4 slave/freedmen. The feminine cognomen of "Lucana" was found for 24 free women and one female slave. Kajanto's work is a compilation of Latin cognomina excerpted from (in the author's words) "all available collections of inscriptions as well as the literary documents of antiquity down to approx. 600 A.D."

 

-- Nephele

[Onasander]

Chinese did the same, as do we (Onasander isn't my real name).... I see it as evidence of a shared literacy culture, and informal training in youth with roleplaying with personas from the corpus that isnt sacrilegious.