Opsidia gens

The gens Opsidia or Obsidia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Few members of this gens are known to have held any magistracies, but several are found in inscriptions.[1] One Obsidius gave his name to the volcanic glass obsidian.

Origin

The nomen Opsidius belongs to a class of gentilicia formed from other names using the suffix -idius. In this case the nomen is derived from the more common Opsius; the same nomen also gives rise to the gens Opsilia.[2] The common root of all three nomina is op-, "help", found in the name of the goddess Ops, as well as the praenomen Opiter, and the derived patronymics Opiternius and Opetreius, and the nomen Oppius.[3]

Most of these names are thought to be of Sabine or Samnite origin, and in some writers we find the nomen Obsidius, apparently an orthographic variation of Opsidius, among the Frentani, a Samnite people.[4][5] At a later period, a Roman traveler of this name is said to have discovered the type of volcanic rock now known as obsidian, which became highly fashionable at Rome.[6]

Members

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

Footnotes

  1. Plutarch calls him Oplacus; Dionysius Oblacus Vulsinius, but Florus appears to have preserved the original name, Obsidius.
  2. Found indistinctly written in manuscripts of Pliny, sometimes read as Obaidius, which Sillig amended to Obsius; but as Obsidius is a genuine, if uncommon nomen, that appears to be the correct reading.
  3. i.e. Maxima.
  4. Also read as Obsidius.

See also

References

  1. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 2 ("Obsidius").
  2. Chase, pp. 121–123.
  3. Chase, pp. 148, 149.
  4. Chase, pp. 128, 129.
  5. Florus, i. 18. § 7.
  6. Pliny the Elder, xxxvi. 26. § 67.
  7. CIL IX, 3062.
  8. Plutarch, "The Life of Pyrrhus", 16.
  9. Dionysius, xviii. 2–4.
  10. CIL V, 8875.
  11. CIL V, 2920.
  12. CIL V, 2791.

Bibliography

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