The gens Menenia was an ancient and very illustrious patrician house at ancient Rome from the earliest days of the Roman Republic to the first half of the fourth century BC. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Agrippa Menenius Lanatus in 503 BC. The gens eventually drifted into obscurity, although a few Menenii are still attested in the epigraphy of the late Republic and imperial times.

Origin

During the first secession of the plebs in 493 BC, Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, the former consul, was despatched by the Senate as an emissary to the plebeians, who were gathered on the Mons Sacer. He said that he was sprung from the plebs, although he and several generations of his descendants held the consulship at a time when, according to the historians of the late Republic, it was open only to the patricians. This suggests that the Menenii had recently been made patricians, probably during the reign of one of the later Roman kings.

Praenomina

The Menenii are known to have used the praenomina Agrippa, Gaius, Titus and Lucius. Together with the gens Furia, they were amongst the only patrician families to make regular use of the praenomen Agrippa, which was later revived as a cognomen in many families. For this reason, later sources erroneously refer to members of this gens as Menenius Agrippa. Licinus, the praenomen of one of the Menenii, was likewise a rare name, meaning upturned, originally refererring to the bearer's nose. This was ordinarily a cognomen, or surname, though here used as a praenomen. It is frequently confused with the nomen Licinius, which was probably derived from it, although perhaps connected to the Etruscan lecne, which seems to have been its equivalent. Licinus is expressly given in the Fasti Capitolini, while Livy renders it as Licinius, and some later historians have amended it to the more common praenomen Lucius.

Branches and cognomina

The only cognomen associated with the Menenii of the early Republic is Lanatus. This surname is derived from the Latin adjective, meaning "wooly", and perhaps originally referred to a person with particularly fine, curly, or abundant hair.

Members

Others

Undated Menenii

Footnotes