Gens

• Gens (Plural Gentes) meant a family, clan or tribe bearing the same name (Nomen) and descended from the same ancestor

Roman Patrician Families

• Each Family was ruled by its own council of Elders, with its own rules, customs and religious practices.
• The Family system formed a series of states within the Roman State.
• The Gens Julia, was the Julian Family, Tribe or Clan, which Julius Caesar belonged to.
• The first five Roman Emperors were called Julio-Claudian because they were either from the Gens Julius or the Gens Claudius, and carried either the nomen Julius or Claudius in their names.

Status

• Families (Gentes) were divided into Patrician Gens or Plebeian Gens.
  • Under the Roman Republic
    • the membership of one or another particular Gens brought great prestige. Some families claimed ancestors who dated back to the founding of Rome in 753 BCE, others even further back to the war against Troy.
  • During the Roman Empire
    • the status of an individual based on membership of a Gens was less important than status based on wealth.

First Names

• Praenomina
  • It was traditional in a family (Gens) for each generation to take the same first names (Praenomina) as the father, grandfather and great grandfather.
  • Certain families (Gentes) would only use the same three or four first names, or perhaps five or six, and this distinguished each family (Gens) from the other families (Gentes).

Surnames

• Stirpes.
  • A family (Gens) could subdivide into branches, distinguished by their Cognomina surnames that followed the Nomen (name).