Marcier

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The plebeian Marcier ( Latin : Marcii or gens Marcia ) were a respected, widely ramified Roman family. Important branches of the family were the Philippi and the Reges . The name is derived from the prenomen Marcus by adding the suffix -ius . According to Plutarch in his biography of the legendary Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus, there was also a patrician branch of the gens Marcia. In the fasti consulares, however, no Marcii are listed as clearly patrician consuls. The first historically guaranteed Marcius is a tribune ( tribunus plebis ) in 389 BC. Based on a suggestion by Cicero , Theodor Mommsen believed that the Marcier invented Coriolanus - to glorify their sex, the plebeian nobility and the plebeians as a whole. Only, according to Livy, in 210 BC Rex sacrorum Marcus Marcius, who died in the 4th century BC, can be cited as an indication of the patricianship of a branch of the family, since according to Cicero this office was exclusively reserved for the patrician nobility during the republican period. However, here too a plebeian descent is more likely, since the appointment of Marcus Marcius apparently fell during the term of office of the first verifiably plebeian pontiff Maximus Lucius Caecilius Metellus and thus in a conflict-ridden historical period.

Well-known representatives

Traces of the personal name Marcius

A number of French places are called Mercy . In some cases this toponym is traced back to the Latin patronymic Marcius or Mercius , for example at Mercy in the Allier department and at Mercey-sur-Saône .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Edwin Charles Clarke , History of Roman Private Law. P. 183f ( digitized version ).
  2. Jörg Rüpke , Status and Individualization among Roman Priests of the Republican Era in Pedro Barceló (ed.), Religious Fundamentalism in the Roman Empire. Potsdam Classical Studies Vol. 29. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2010, 16 ( PDF )
  3. ^ Toponymie générale de la France by Ernest Nègre, page 571

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