The gens Tarquitia was a
patrician family at
ancient Rome. Few members of this
gens appear in history, of whom the most illustrious was Lucius Tarquitius Fiaccus, who was magister equitum in 458 BC. Other Tarquitii are mentioned toward the end of the
Republic, but were probably
plebeians, rather than descendants of the patrician Tarquitii.[1]
Origin
The
nomenTarquitius is thought to be another orthography of Tarquinius, the
Latin form of the
Etruscan gentilicium Tarchna. The Tarquitii would therefore be of Etruscan origin, perhaps from the city of
Tarquinii.
Branches and cognomina
The only
cognomen associated with the Tarquitii of the Republic is Flaccus, a common surname originally describing someone flabby, or with floppy ears.[2] The other Tarquitii of the Republic bore no surname, but a variety of cognomina are found in
imperial times, including Priscus, old or elder, and Catulus, a whelp.[3]
Members
This list includes abbreviated
praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see
filiation.
Quintus Tarquitius, named on a coin commemorating the service of Gaius Annius Luscus in the Sertorian War, depicting
Victoria driving a
biga. From its resemblance to a coin of Lucius Fabius, one of Annius' quaestors, it was supposed that Quintus Tarquitius was another quaestor.[11]
Marcus Tarquitius Priscus, a
legate of
Statilius Taurus in
Africa, accused Taurus of extortion and sorcery. The
Senate expelled him as an informer.
Nero restored his rank and appointed him governor of
Bithynia, but in AD 61 he was himself condemned for extortion.[13]
Edmund Groag,
Arthur Stein,
Leiva Petersen, and Klaus Wachtel, Prosopographia Imperii Romani (The Prosopography of the Roman Empire, Second Edition, abbreviated PIR2), Berlin (1933–2015).
T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, American Philological Association (1952–1986).
Avner Rabban and Kenneth G. Holum, Caesarea Maritima: A Retrospective after Two Millennia, E. J. Brill (1996).