Branches and Cognomina of The Gens
The family-names of the Aurelii under the Republic are Cotta, Orestes, and Scaurus. On coins we find the cognomina Cotta and Scaurus, and perhaps Rufus, the last of which is not mentioned by historians. The surname Pecuniola, borne by a member of the gens during the First Punic War, probably relates to his circumstance of poverty.
Under the early emperors, we find an Aurelian family of the name of Fulvus, from which the Roman emperor Antoninus was descended, whose name originally was Titus Aurelius Fulvus. Antoninus legally adopted Marcus Annius Verus and Lucius Ceionius Commodus, who thereby became members of the Aurelia gens, under the names Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Verus.
Towards the end of the western Empire, the Aurelii Symmachi rise to prominence, flourishing for some two centuries, and occupying many of the highest offices of the state.
Read more about this topic: Aurelia (gens)
Famous quotes containing the word branches:
“In the woods in a winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window, with which Gothic cathedrals are adorned, in the colors of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)