Roman Gentes

Roman Gentes

In ancient Rome, a gens (/ˈɡɛns/ or /ˈdʒɛnz/), plural gentes, referred to a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps (plural stirpes). The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the period of the Roman Republic. Much of an individual's social standing depended on the gens to which he belonged. Certain gentes were considered patrician, others plebeian, while some had both patrician and plebeian branches. The importance of membership in a gens declined considerably in imperial times.

Read more about Roman Gentes:  Origin of The gens, Social Function of The gens, Patrician and Plebeian gentes, See Also

Famous quotes containing the word roman:

    I remember when I was first assigned to jets. I said to the colonel, “Colonel, I joined this man’s air force to fly an airplane. But nobody’s gonna hitch me to no Roman candle.”
    Kurt Neumann (1906–1958)