Vipsania (gens)

The gens Vipsania was an obscure plebeian family of equestrian rank at ancient Rome. Few members of this gens appear in history, although a number are known from inscriptions. By far the most illustrious of the family was Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, a close friend and adviser of Augustus, whom the emperor intended to make his heir. After Agrippa died, Augustus adopted his friend's sons, each of whom was considered a possible heir to the Empire, but when each of them died or proved unsuitable, Augustus chose another heir, the future emperor Tiberius.[1]

Marcus Vispanius Agrippa approves the construction of the Aqua Virgo.

Origin

The Vipsanii are not mentioned in history until the very end of the Republic. Their nomen, Vipsanius, resembles other gentilicia ending in -anius, which were typically derived from place names or cognomina ending in -anus. According to some scholars, the gens Vipsania was originally from Pisae in Etruria.[2][3]

Praenomina

The only praenomina associated with the main family of the Vipsanii were Lucius, Marcus, and Gaius, the three most common names throughout Roman history. Vipsanii with other praenomina appear only in inscriptions.

Branches and cognomina

Only one distinct family of the Vipsanii appears in history, with the cognomen Agrippa. This was originally a praenomen, used by a few families of the early Republic, including the patrician Furii and Menenii, but by the end of the Republic it seems to have been used exclusively as a cognomen. Its origin and meaning were obscure even in antiquity; the most familiar explanation was that it was one of many praenomina derived from the circumstances of childbirth, and referred to a child delivered feet-first.[lower-roman 1][4][5][6][7][8][9]

Members

This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.

• Lucius Vipsanius, an eques, and the father of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.
• Lucius Vipsanius L. f., elder son of the eques, and brother of Marcus Agrippa.
• Vipsania L. f. Polla, daughter of the eques, and sister of Marcus.[10]
• Marcus Vipsanius L. f. Agrippa, the friend and trusted lieutenant of Augustus, distinguished himself in the Perusine War, against the Chatti, Sextus Pompeius, and at the Battle of Actium. He was consul in 37, 28, and 27 BC, and as aedile in 33 and subsequently repaired and constructed a number of important public works. His first wife was Pomponia Caecilia Attica, the daughter of Titus Pomponius Atticus; about 28 BC he married Augustus' niece, Marcella, and in 21 the emperor had him divorce Marcella and marry his daughter, Julia. He died unexpectedly in 12 BC.[11][12][13][14][1]
• Vipsania M. f. L. n., daughter of Agrippa by his first wife, Pomponia, married Quintus Haterius.
• Vipsania M. f. L. n. Agrippina, daughter of Agrippa by his first wife, Pomponia. Her first husband was Tiberius Claudius Nero, by whom she became the mother of Drusus, but Augustus ordered their divorce, so that Tiberius could marry Julia. Vipsania then married Gaius Asinius Gallus, consul in 8 BC.[15][16][17]
• Vipsania M. f. L. n. Marcella Major, daughter of Agrippa by his second wife, Marcella, married Publius Quinctilius Varus.
• Vipsania M. f. L. n. Marcella Minor, daughter of Agrippa by his second wife, Marcella, married Marcus Aemilius Lepidus.
• Gaius Vipsanius M. f. L. n. Agrippa, the elder son of Agrippa and Julia, was adopted by Augustus in his father's lifetime, becoming Gaius Julius Caesar. He was consul in AD 1, together with his brother-in-law, Lucius Aemilius Paullus, but was already in Asia, where he remained to oppose the Parthians. He was wounded while taking possession of Armenia, and never fully recovered, dying at Limyra in Lycia in AD 4.[18][19][20][21][22][23]
• Vipsania M. f. L. n. Julia Agrippina, the elder daughter of Agrippa and Julia, commonly known as Julia the Younger, married Lucius Aemilius Paullus, consul in AD 1. She may have been the inspiration for the Corinna of Ovid's Amores. In AD 8, she was banished to the island of Tremerus, ostensibly for an affair with the senator Decimus Junius Silanus, but possibly because her husband had conspired against the emperor. She died in exile in 28.[24][25][26][27]
• Lucius Vipsanius M. f. L. n. Agrippa, the second son of Agrippa and Julia, was adopted in infancy by Augustus, becoming Lucius Julius Caesar. He and his brother, Gaius, were meant to be the emperor's heirs, but Lucius died at Massilia in AD 2, while traveling to Spain, and his brother died in AD 4, leaving Augustus to choose between their younger brother, Marcus, and his son-in-law, Tiberius.
• Vipsania M. f. L. n. Agrippina, or Agrippina the Elder, the younger daughter of Agrippa and Julia, married Germanicus, the nephew and intended heir of Tiberius, but after his death in AD 19, she was regarded with suspicion by the emperor, who banished her and her two elder sons, Nero and Drusus, to the Pontine Islands, where they died. Her third son, Gaius, succeeded Tiberius; her daughter, Agrippina, was the fourth wife of Claudius and the mother of Nero.[28][29][30]
• Marcus Vipsanius M. f. L. n. Agrippa Postumus,[lower-roman 2] the youngest son of Agrippa and Julia, was born after his father's death in 12 BC, and adopted by Augustus in AD 4, becoming Marcus Julius Caesar Agrippa Postumus. He was later banished to the island of Planasia on account of his violent temperament. There he was murdered after the accession of Tiberius, in order to forestall any possibility of a revolt in his name.[31][32][33][34]
• Vipsanius Laenas, governor of Sardinia, was condemned in AD 56 on a charge of repetundae, maladministration of his province.[35]

See also

• List of Roman gentes

Footnotes

1. This is the explanation given by Pliny, and followed by a number of other ancient authors. Modern scholars are skeptical of this explanation; Chase suggests that the name was borrowed from Greek, and was a compound name based on αγρός and ἵππος, thus making the definition something like "field horse". The Romans then adapted it to resemble their own names. However, in this case one would expect the Latin form to be Agrippus, and while the Romans did occasionally use surnames of Greek origin, the earliest examples seem to date to the fourth century BC; and Agrippa would be unique as a praenomen of Greek origin.
2. The name Postumus, originally a praenomen, like Agrippa, is derived from the adjective postremus, last or hindmost, and was originally given to last-born children; but by confusion with post humus, after burial, came to be applied to children born after their fathers' death. Since the two meanings often coincided, the distinction in this case may be academic, but in this instance the name seems to have been given because Marcus was born after his father's death.

References

1. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, pp. 78–80 ("Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa").
2. Hall, Etruscan Italy, p. 188.
3. Ridgway, The World of the Early Etruscans, p. 37.
4. Pliny the Elder, vii. 6. § 1.
5. Chase, pp. 146, 147.
6. Nonius, 557.
7. Gellius xvi. 16.
8. Solinus, i. 65.
9. Servius, viii. 682.
10. Cassius Dio, lv. 8.
11. Cassius Dio, xlv–liv.
12. Livy, Epitome, cxvii–cxxxvi.
13. Appian, Bellum Civile, v.
14. Suetonius, "The Life of Augustus".
15. Cassius Dio, liv. 31, lvii. 2.
16. Suetonius, "The Life of Tiberius", 7.
17. Tacitus, Annales, i. 12, iii. 19.
18. Cassius Dio, liv. 8, 18, 25, lv. 6, 9, 11, 12.
19. Zonaras, x. p. 539.
20. Suetonius, "The Life of Augustus", 26, 56, 64, 65, "The Life of Tiberius", 12.
21. Velleius Paterculus, ii. 101, 102.
22. Tacitus, Annales, i. 3, ii. 4.
23. Florus, iv. 12. § 42.
24. Cassius Dio, lix. 11.
25. Suetonius, "The Life of Caligula", 24, "The Life of Claudius", 26, "The Life of Augustus", 64, 65, 101.
26. Tacitus, Annales, iii. 24, iv. 71.
27. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 642 ("Julia", No. 7).
28. Suetonius, "The Life of Augustus", 64, "The Life of Caligula", 8, "The Life of Tiberius", 53.
29. Tacitus, Annales, i–vi.
30. Cassius Dio, lvii. 5, 6, lviii. 22.
31. Suetonius, "The Life of Augustus", 64, 65, "The Life of Tiberius", 22.
32. Cassius Dio, liv. 29, lv. 22, 32, lvii. 3.
33. Tacitus, Annales, i. 3–6, ii. 39, 40.
34. Velleius Paterculus, ii. 104, 112.
35. Tacitus, Annales, xiii. 30.

Bibliography

• Titus Livius (Livy), History of Rome.
• Marcus Velleius Paterculus, Compendium of Roman History.
• Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder), Historia Naturalis (Natural History).
• Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales.
• Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum (Lives of the Caesars, or The Twelve Caesars).
• Lucius Annaeus Florus, Epitome de T. Livio Bellorum Omnium Annorum DCC (Epitome of Livy: All the Wars of Seven Hundred Years).
• Appianus Alexandrinus (Appian), Bellum Civile (The Civil War).
• Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae (Attic Nights).
• Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus (Cassius Dio), Roman History.
• Gaius Julius Solinus, De Mirabilis Mundi (On the Wonders of the World).
• Maurus Servius Honoratus (Servius), Ad Virgilii Aeneidem Commentarii (Commentary on Vergil's Aeneid).
• Nonius Marcellus, De Compendiosa Doctrina (On Collected Knowledge).
• Joannes Zonaras, Epitome Historiarum (Epitome of History).
• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
• George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII, pp. 103–184 (1897).
• John Franklin Hall, Etruscan Italy: Etruscan Influences on the Civilizations of Italy from Antiquity to the Modern Era, Indiana University Press (1996), ISBN 9780842523349.
• David Ridgway, The World of the Early Etruscans, Paul Astrèoms Fèorlag, Stockholm (2002), ISBN 9789170811890.