The gens Opsilia was an obscure plebeian family at Rome. No members of this gens are known to have held any magistracies, but several are found in inscriptions.
Origin[edit]
The nomen Opsilius belongs to a class of gentilicia formed from other names using the suffix -ilius. In this case the nomen is derived from the more common Opsius; the same nomen also gives rise to the gens Opsidia or Obsidia.[1] The common root of all three nomina is op-, "help", found in the name of the goddess Ops, as well as the praenomen Opiter, and the derived patronymics Opiternius and Opetreius, and the nomen Oppius.[2] Most of these names are thought to be of Sabine or Samnite origin.[3]
Members[edit]
- This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.
- Opsilia, built a tomb at Tusculum for her husband Marcus Coelius Vinicianus, a former praetor and tribune of the plebs.[4]
- Opsilius, centurion in a cohort of soldiers stationed at the present site of Gilsland, then in the province of Britannia.[5]
- Marcus Opsilius M. f., buried at Fanum Fortunae in Umbria.[6]
- Publius Opsilius P. l. Alexas, a freedman named in a dedicatory inscription from Rome.[7]
- Opsilius Conius, buried at Carales in Sardinia, aged thirty. His wife built a tomb for him, dating to between AD 201 and 230.[8]
- Sextus Opsilius Geminus, named in a libationary inscription found at Roermond, formerly part of Germania Inferior.[9]
- Marcus Opsilius M. l. Midas, a freedman named in an inscription from Rome.[10]
- Lucius Opsilius L. l. Pamphilus, a freedman mentioned in an inscription from Rome, under the names of the consuls of AD 5.[11]
- Titus Opsilius Saturninus, named in a dedicatory inscription from Rome.[12]
- Opsilia Tyche, named in a dedicatory inscription from Rome.[12]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
Bibliography[edit]
- Theodor Mommsen et alii, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated CIL), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–present).
- René Cagnat et alii, L'Année épigraphique (The Year in Epigraphy, abbreviated AE), Presses Universitaires de France (1888–present).
- The Roman Inscriptions of Britain (abbreviated RIB), Oxford, (1990–present).
- Andreas Kakoschke, Ortsfremde in den römischen Provinzen Germania inferior und Germania superior (Foreigners in the Roman Provinces of Germania Inferior and Germania Superior), Möhnesee (2002).
- Antonio M. Corda, Concordanze delle iscrizioni latine della Sardegna (Concordance of the Latin Inscriptions of Sardinia, abbreviated SRD), Ortacesus (2014).