Claudia (gens) - Origin of The Gens

Origin of The Gens

According to legend, the first of the Claudii was a Sabine, by the name of Attius Clausus, who came to Rome with his retainers in 504 BC, the sixth year of the Republic. At this time, the fledgling Republic was engaged in regular warfare with the Sabines, and Clausus is said to have been the leader of a faction seeking to end the conflict. When his efforts failed, he defected to the Romans. Clausus was enrolled among the patricians, and exchanged his Sabine name for the Latin Appius Claudius.

Tiberius is said to have referred to this tradition, in a speech made before the Roman Senate, in which he argued in favor of admitting Gauls to that body. "My ancestors, the most ancient of whom was made at once a citizen and a noble of Rome, encourage me to govern by the same policy of transferring to this city all conspicuous merit, wherever found." The Claudii were also said to have been granted a tract of land for their dependents on the far side of the Anio, and a burial site at the foot of the Capitoline Hill.

By imperial times, the influence of the Claudii was so great that the poet Vergilius flattered them by a deliberate anachronism. In his Aeneid, he makes Attius Clausus a contemporary of Aeneas, to whose side he rallies with a host of quirites, or spearmen.

The nomen Claudius, originally Clausus, according to legend, is usually said to be derived from the Latin adjective claudus, meaning "lame". As a cognomen, Claudus is occasionally found in other gentes. This etymology was argued by Antoine Meillet and Karl Braasch. However, since there is no tradition that any of the early Claudii were lame, the nomen might refer to some ancestor of Attius Clausus. It could also have been metaphorical, or ironic, and the possibility remains that this derivation is erroneous.

The metathesis of Clausus into Claudius, and its common by-form, Clodius, was discussed in the Dictionnaire Étymologique Latin. The alternation of 'o' and 'au' seems to have been common in Sabine. The alternation of 's' and 'd' occurs in words borrowed from Greek: Latin rosa from Greek rhodos; but in this instance clausus or *closus is a Sabine word becoming clod- in Latin. The name could have come from Greek settlers in Latium, but there is no evidence in favor of this hypothesis.

The Sabine praenomen Attius has been the subject of similar fascination for philologists. The form Attus is mentioned by Valerius Maximus, who connected it with the bucolic Greek name Atys. Braasch translated it as Väterchen, "little father," and connected it with a series of childhood parental names: "atta, tata, acca," and the like, becoming such names as Tatius (also Sabine) and Atilius.