Everything about Gens totally explained
In
ancient Rome, a
gens (pl.
gentes) was a
clan,
caste, or group of
families, that shared a common name (the
nomen) and a belief in a common ancestor. In the
Roman naming convention, the second name was the name of the
gens to which the person belonged. The term has also been used to refer to families within a
clan system in other contexts, including
tribal clans.
The origins of the
gentes are unclear, although they're probably not as ancient as the Romans themselves thought; although some were associated with particular cults or ceremonies, all were primarily personal and familial in nature, with no specific political or public duties. Also, the
gentes didn't usually have legendary founders that were worshiped, and the gentile assemblies are not recorded to have passed any sort of legally binding resolutions. Few of the names have clear
Indo-European etymologies, and some have been traced to
Etruscan names.
Nevertheless, the relationships of the
gentes was a major factor in politics; members of the same
gens were "family", and therefore frequently (though not always) political allies.
Gentes did have a legal standing in republican Rome. The
gens as a legal entity owned property, including a family burial ground. There was a
gens chief, more formally in early Rome and less formally in later Rome; in fact, some notable members of
patrician gentes had themselves adopted by
plebeian families in order to run for offices not open to the patricii. Members of a
gens had a legal obligation to help one another when asked. A gens was
exogamous; that is, individuals couldn't seek
marriage partners from within the gens.
A gens was
patrilineal and
patriarchal. However, such customs were not necessarily inherited from the
Italics; the Etruscans could have exercised them also. By the time of republican Rome, Etruscan culture as a whole was fast assimilating to the Italic. The gentes were probably mixed.
Originally the
plebeians and
patricians were not allowed to
intermarry, and several patrician families had collapsed as a result, until the
Lex Canuleia, allowing intermarriage, was passed.
Among the patrician
gentes there were two categories, the
gentes maiores, and the
gentes minores. The
maiores were the leading families of Rome: these were the
Aemilii,
Claudii,
Cornelii,
Fabii, and
Valerii, and they claimed special religious and secular privileges.
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