The gens Calpurnia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, which first appears in history during the third century BC. The first of the gens to obtain the consulship was Gaius Calpurnius Piso in 180 BC, but from this time their consulships were very frequent, and the family of the Pisones became one of the most illustrious in the Roman state. Two important pieces of Republican legislation, the lex Calpurnia of 149 BC and lex Acilia Calpurnia of 67 BC were passed by members of the gens.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 582 ("Calpurnia Gens").
Origin The Calpurnii claimed descent from Calpus, the son of Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome, and accordingly the head of Numa is found on some of the coins of this gens.Plutarch "The Life of Numa", 21.Horace, Ars Poetica, 292.Festus, s. v. Calpurni.Eckhel, v. p. 160.
Praenomina The principal praenomina of the Calpurnii were Lucius, Gaius, Marcus, and Gnaeus. Publius was not a regular name of the Calpurnia gens during the Republic, but was used by the Calpurnii Lanarii.Syme, "Missing Senators", p. 59.
Branches and cognomina The family-names of the Calpurnii under the Republic were Bestia, Bibulus, Flamma, Lanarius, and Piso.
Piso was the name of the greatest family of the Calpurnia gens. Like many other cognomina, this name is connected with agriculture, and comes from the verb or , which refers to the pounding or grinding of corn. The family first rose from obscurity during the Second Punic War, and from that time it became one of the most distinguished in the Roman state. It preserved its celebrity under the empire, and during the first century was second to the imperial family alone. Many of the Pisones bore this cognomen alone, but others bore the agnomina Caesoninus and Frugi.
Of the other surnames of the Republican Calpurnii, Bestia refers to a "beast", "an animal without reason". Bibulus translates as "fond of drinking", or "thirsty", while Flamma refers to a flame.Cassell's Latin & English Dictionary, s. v. Bestia, Bibulus, Flamma.
Members
Early Calpurnii Marcus Calpurnius Flamma, one of the military tribunes in 258 BC, during the First Punic War, led a daring mission to relieve the army of the consul Aulus Atilius Calatinus.
Calpurnii Pisones Gaius Calpurnius (C. f.) Piso, praetor urbanus in 211 BC."Calpurnius", No. 61, PW, vol. III, part 1, col. 1376 (Calpurnius 61). Gaius Calpurnius C. f. C. n. Piso, praetor in 186 BC, and consul in 180, triumphed over the Lusitani and Celtiberi."Calpurnius", No. 62, PW, vol. III, part 1, col. 1376 (Calpurnius 62). Lucius Calpurnius C. f. C. n. Piso Caesoninus, consul in 148 BC. Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, consul in 139 BC.Valerius Maximus, i. 3. § 2. Quintus Calpurnius C. f. Piso, consul in 135 BC, sent against Numantia, but instead of attacking the city, plundered the territory of Pallantia.Appian, Hispanica, 83.Orosius, v. 6.Obsequens, 85."Calpurnius", No. 86, PW, vol. 3, part 1, col. 1386 (Calpurnius 86). Calpurnius Piso, praetor circa 135, defeated during the First Servile War.Florus, iii. 19. Calpurnius Piso, fought successfully against the Thracians circa 104 BC.Florus, iii. 4. § 6, iv. 12. § 17. Lucius Calpurnius L. f. C. n. Piso Caesoninus, consul in 112 BC. Lucius Calpurnius Piso, quaestor circa 100 BC, might be the same person as the armourer.Broughton, vol. I, pp. 576, 578 (note 5). Lucius Calpurnius L. f. L. n. Piso Caesoninus, manufactured arms at Rome during the Social War. Cicero, In Pisonem, 36, 23, 26, 27. Lucius Calpurnius L. f. L. n. Piso Caesoninus, consul in 58 BC, and father-in-law of Caesar. Calpurnia L. f. L. n., the last wife of Caesar. Lucius Calpurnius L. f. L. n. Piso Caesoninus, consul in 15 BC. Lucius Calpurnius L. f. L. n. Piso Caesoninus, elder son of the consul of 15 BC. Lucius Calpurnius Piso (Frugi or Caesoninus), tribune of the plebs in 90 BC, possibly identical with a strategos of that name in Asia, whose activity has been dated variously from shortly before 90 to as late as 83.Broughton, vol. 3, p. 48 Lucius Calpurnius L. f. C. n. Piso Frugi, consul in 133 BC. Lucius Calpurnius L. f. L. n. Piso Frugi, praetor in Hispania Ulterior circa 112 BC, where he died in battle."Calpurnius", No. 97, PW, vol. III, part 1, col. 1395 (Calpurnius 97). Lucius Calpurnius L. f. L. n. Piso Frugi, praetor in 74 BC, frustrated some of the schemes of his colleague, Verres.Cicero, In Verrem, i. 46. Gaius Calpurnius L. f. L. n. Piso Frugi, quaestor in 58 BC, married Tullia, the daughter of Cicero. Gaius Calpurnius Piso, consul in 67 BC. Gnaeus Calpurnius Cn.f. Piso, one of Catiline's conspirators, quaestor in Hispania Citerior in 65 BC. He was murdered by mutinous Spanish horsemen."Calpurnius", No. 69, PW, vol. III, part 1, cols. 1379–1380 (Calpurnius 69). Marcus Pupius Piso Frugi, originally one of the Calpurnii, adopted by Marcus Pupius. Gnaeus Calpurnius Cn. f. C. n. Piso, a partisan of Pompeius, and subsequently of Brutus and Cassius; subsequently pardoned, and made consul in 23 BC. Gnaeus Calpurnius Cn. f. Cn. n. Piso, consul in 7 BC, accused of murdering Germanicus. Lucius Calpurnius Cn. f. Cn. n. Piso 'augur', consul in 1 BC.Cassius Dio, index lib. lv. Lucius Calpurnius Piso, accused of plotting against the life of Tiberius in AD 24. Lucius Calpurnius Piso, praetor in Hispania Citerior in AD 25.Tacitus, Annales, iv. 45. Lucius Calpurnius Cn. f. Cn. n. Piso, consul in AD 27. Marcus Calpurnius Cn. f. Cn. n. Piso, the younger son of the consul of 7 BC, was accused with his father, but pardoned by Tiberius. Gaius Calpurnius Piso, consul in AD 41 with the emperor Claudius, and the instigator of the conspiracy against Nero in AD 65. Lucius Calpurnius L. f. Cn. n. Piso, consul in AD 57 with the emperor Nero. Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Licinianus, named heir by the emperor Galba, and murdered on the orders of Otho in AD 69. Calpurnius C. f. Piso Galerianus, son of the consul of AD 41, was murdered by Gaius Licinius Mucianus, a supporter of Vespasian.Tacitus, Historiae, iv. 11. Gaius Calpurnius Piso Crassus Frugi Licinianus, consul in AD 87. Exiled to Tarentum for conspiring against the emperor Nerva; exiled again for conspiring against Trajan; murdered early in the reign of Hadrian.Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus (attributed), 12.Cassius Dio, lxviii. 3, 16.Grainger, Nerva and the Roman Succession Crisis of AD 96-99, pp. 69 ff. Gaius Calpurnius Piso, consul suffectus in AD 97.Fausto Zevi "I consoli del 97 d. Cr. in due framenti gia' editi dei Fasti Ostienses", Listy filologické / Folia philologica, 96 (1973), pp. 125–137 Gaius Calpurnius Piso, consul in AD 111. Lucius Calpurnius Piso, consul in AD 175, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius.Aelius Lampridius, "The Life of Commodus", 12. Piso "Frugi", a third-century general, described as an usurper by the Historia Augusta. In AD 261 he was sent by Macrianus Major, one of Valerian's lieutenants, to deal with Valens Thessalonicus, the governor of Achaia under Gallienus. Piso halted his troops in Thessaly, and proclaimed himself emperor, but he was slain the same year, and his revolt put down by Valens.Trebellius Pollio, "The Thirty Tyrants".
Calpurnii Lanarii Publius Calpurnius, in 133 BC, was perhaps the father of Lanarius, since the name Publius appears in no other branch of the gens.Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, p. 278. Calpurnius (P. f.) Lanarius, an officer during the war against Sertorius in 81 BC, he defeated and killed Sertorius' legate, Lucius Julius Salinator, in the Pyrenees. Under whom he served is unclear; he may have initially been a partisan of Sertorius, making his battle against Salinator an act of betrayal.Plutarch, "The Life of Sertorius", 7.Konrad, Plutarch's Sertorius, pp. 100, 101. Publius Calpurnius (P. f.) Lanarius, the purchaser of a house from a certain Claudius Centumalus. He might be the same man who fought against Sertorius.Cicero, De Officiis, ii. 16.
Calpurnii Bestiae Lucius Calpurnius Bestia, consul in 111 BC, prosecuted the Jugurthine War, at first with much vigor, but through the payment of a substantial sum of money he was induced to conclude a peace. He or his son was exiled under the Varian law in 90 BC.PW, vol. III (1), cols. 1366, 1367 ("Calpurnius, No. 23") Lucius Calpurnius L. f. Bestia, son of the Lucius Calpurnius Bestia who was consul in 111 BC. He may have been the Bestia who went into exile when threatened with prosecution under the lex Varia in 90 BC.Syme, Approaching the Roman Revolution, p. 135. Calpurnia L. f., the wife of Publius Antistius, and mother-in-law of Pompey. Upon her husband's murder, she stabbed herself in the chest.Velleius Paterculus, ii. 26. Lucius Calpurnius Bestia, a supporter of Catilina, became tribune of the plebs in 62 BC, following the failure of the conspiracy. He attacked Cicero for his actions as consul."Calpurnius", No. 24, PW, vol. III, part 1, col. 1367 (Calpurnius 24).Crawford, M. Tullius Cicero: The Lost and Unpublished Orations, p. 144. Lucius Calpurnius Bestia, aedile in 57 BC, was a candidate for the praetorship. The following year, Cicero successfully defended him on a charge of electoral bribery. He later went into exile, but regained his status and became a follower of Mark Antony.Broughton, "Candidates Defeated", pp. 35–36. Lucius Sempronius L. f. L. n. Atratinus, consul in 34 BC, was the natural son of a Calpurnius Bestia. His father was probably the Lucius Calpurnius Bestia who was aedile in 57 BC. His mother may have been a Sempronia."Calpurnius", No. 25, PW, supp. III, col. 230 (Calpurnius 25).
Calpurnii Bibuli Gaius Calpurnius (Bibulus), father of the consul Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus.Calpurnius. Strachan stemma. Marcus Calpurnius C. f. Bibulus, consul in 59 BC, was an opponent of Caesar, and a partisan of Pompeius during the Civil War."Calpurnius", No. 28, PW, vol. III, part 1, cols. 1368–1370 (Calpurnius 28). Marcus Calpurnius M. f. C. n. Bibulus, eldest son of the consul Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, was killed in Egypt in 50 BC by the soldiers of Aulus Gabinius.Caesar, De Bello Civili, iii. 110.Valerius Maximus, iv. 1. § 15. Gaius Calpurnius M. f. C. n. Bibulus, the second son of the consul Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, was also killed by the Gabiniani in Egypt in 50 BC. Lucius Calpurnius M. f. C. n. Bibulus, the third son of the consul Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, was appointed governor of Syria by Augustus. Calpurnia M. f. C. n., daughter of the consul Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, (Gaius) Calpurnius M. f. C. n. Bibulus, the fourth son of the consul Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, and the only attested son by his second wife, Porcia, became the stepson of Marcus Junius Brutus upon her remarriage. Gaius (Calpurnius) Bibulus, aedile in AD 22, may have been the son of Gaius Calpurnius Bibulus, Brutus' stepson."Calpurnius", No. 26, PW, vol. III, part 1, col. 1367 (Calpurnius 26). (Calpurnia) Domitia Calvina, daughter of Lucius and Domitia Calvina, was the mother of Marcus Junius Silanus Torquatus, consul in AD 19.Syme, "M. Bibulus and Four Sons".
Others
Lucius Calpurnius, sent as ambassador to the Achaians at Sicyon in 198 BC.Livy, xxxii. 19. Calpurnius, a praetorian senator around 90 BC, may be identical with Publius, the monetalis in 133.Konrad, "Plutarch's Sertorius", p. 100. Calpurnius, standard-bearer of the first legion in Germania at the accession of Tiberius in AD 14, he prevented the soldiers of Germanicus from murdering Munatius Plancus, the envoy of the senate.Tacitus, Annales, i. 39. Gaius Calpurnius Aviola, consul in AD 24, perhaps one of the Pisones.Syme, "Piso Frugi and Crassus Frugi", p. 19. Calpurnius Salvianus, accused Sextus Marius in AD 25, but was rebuked by Tiberius and banished by the senate.Tacitus, Annales, iv. 36. Calpurnia, a favorite concubine of the emperor Claudius, despatched by Narcissus to inform the emperor of the marriage of Messalina and Gaius Silius.Tacitus, Annales, xi. 30.