The gens Ofilia, also spelled Ofillia and Ofellia,[lower-roman 1] was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Its most illustrious member was doubtless the jurist Aulus Ofilius, a friend of both Caesar and Cicero.[1]

Origin

The nomen Ofilius first appears in history during the period of the Samnite Wars, both as a praenomen and a nomen among the Samnites, but by the first century BC individuals of this gens are found at Rome. As a nomen, Ofilius may be regarded as a patronymic surname based on the existing praenomen, but Chase suggests a derivation from Ofella, a cognomen formed as a diminutive of offa, "a morsel".[2]

Members

See also

Footnotes

  1. Each of these spellings is found in inscriptions, but the ancient historians usually preferred Ofilius.
  2. Pomponius appears to call him Gaius Aulus Ofilius, but this seems to be a copyist's error.

References

  1. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 19 ("Ofilius or Ofellius").
  2. Chase, p. 124.
  3. Livy, ix. 7.
  4. Digesta, 1. tit. 2. s. 2. § 44; 32. s. 55; 33 tit. 9. s. 3. §§ 5, 8; 50. tit. 16. s. 234. § 2.
  5. Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, vii. 21, Epistulae ad Atticum, xiii. 37.
  6. Zimmern, Geschichte des Römischen Privatrechts bis Justinian.
  7. Puchta, Cursus der Institutionen, vol. i. p. 427.
  8. Grotius, De Vitae Jurisconsultorum.
  9. Appian, Bellum Civile, v. 128.
  10. Broughton, vol. II, p. 404.
  11. Pliny the Elder, vii. 53. s. 54.
  12. Arrian, Epictiti Diatribae, iii. 22. § 27.
  13. 1 2 3 PIR, vol. II, p. 432.
  14. CIL IX, 2591.

Bibliography

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