The gens Marcia, occasionally written Martia, was one of the oldest and noblest houses at ancient Rome. They claimed descent from the second and fourth Roman Kings, and the first of the Marcii appearing in the history of the Republic would seem to have been patrician; but all of the families of the Marcii known in the later Republic were plebeian. The first to obtain the consulship was Gaius Marcius Rutilus in 357 BC, only a few years after the passage of the lex Licinia Sextia opened this office to the plebeians.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 940 ("Marcia Gens").
Origin The Marcii are supposed to have been Sabines, descended from a certain Marcus Marcius of Cures, a kinsman of Numa Pompilius, and his son, Numa Marcius, a childhood friend of Pompilius, who accompanied him to Rome and served as his chief advisor. His son, the younger Numa Marcius, was urban prefect under Tullus Hostilius, and his grandson was Ancus Marcius, the fourth King of Rome.
Although the Roman monarchy was not strictly hereditary, tradition holds that the sons of Ancus Marcius hoped to succeed their father, but were prevented from doing so when his chief advisor, the Etruscan Lucius Tarquinius, took advantage of their absence at the time of the king's death to solicit support for his own claim, and was elected king.Livy, i. 35.
After biding their time for many years, the sons of Marcius gained their revenge by engineering the assassination of Tarquin, but they were again prevented from claiming the throne by a ruse of Tanaquil, the Roman queen, who installed her stepson, Servius Tullius, as regent, until he had sufficient support to rule on his own. The later Marcii claimed descent from Ancus Marcius, but nothing further is recorded of his sons or the generations between them and the Marcii of the early Republic.Livy, i. 41.
The nomen Marcius is a patronymic surname, based on the common praenomen Marcus. There is no reason to doubt that both names are in turn derived from the god Mars, although the precise linguistic process by which this occurred is complex and uncertain.Chase, pp. 131, 158, 159.
Praenomina
The Marcii were relatively conservative with respect to praenomina, with only three names accounting for most of the Marcii of the Republic. The main branches of the family used Lucius with either Gaius or Quintus, but not generally both. Other names, among them Gnaeus, Publius, and Marcus, appear only occasionally. Most praenomina of the Marcii were common, but history records one person called Septimus Marcius, which if correct represents an example of a rare Latin praenomen—although it is possible that in this instance, Septimus should be regarded as a surname.
The ancient praenomina Numa and Ancus evidently passed out of use some time before the establishment of the Republic. Both appear to have been Sabine or Oscan, as were all of the persons known to have borne them. No attempt seems to have been made to revive either of them at Rome, either as praenomen or cognomen. Numa seems to be related to Numitor, the name of one of the ancient Kings of Alba Longa, and the grandfather of Romulus, and may share a common root with the praenomen Numerius, which remained in use at Rome for many centuries; Chase suggests a meaning related to "arranger" or "orderer", which would suit both Numa Pompilius and his kinsman, Numa Marcius. For Ancus, otherwise known only from the legendary founder of the Publicia gens, he suggests the meaning of "servant", perhaps in the religious sense.Chase, p. 144.
Branches and cognomina The only surname associated with the patrician Marcii was Coriolanus, which does not seem to have represented a distinct family of the Marcian gens. During the time of the Republic, the plebeian Marcii bore the cognomina Censorinus, Crispus, Figulus, Libo, Philippus, Ralla, Rex, Rufus, Rutilus, Septimus, Sermo, and Tremulus. Those of Censorinus, Libo, and Philippus are found on coins.
Coriolanus, the earliest cognomen of the Marcii, and the only one generally believed to have belonged to any of the patrician Marcii, was the personal surname of Gaius Marcius, a young soldier whose brilliant charge through the gates of Corioli resulted in the capture of that town from the Volscians. We are told that he had two young sons, from whom one might imagine that the later Marcii were descended; but all of the later Marcii known to history were plebeians. If any of them were descendants of Coriolanus, then they must have stepped down or been removed from the patrician order. The surname Coriolanus does not appear to have been passed down to later generations of the Marcii.Livy, ii. 40.Chase, p. 113.
The earliest family of the plebeian Marcii bore the surname of Rutilus, meaning "reddish", probably signifying that the first of this family had red hair.Chase, p. 110. It is through this family that the Marcii emerged from obscurity, only a few years after the passage of the lex Licinia Sextia opened the consulship to the plebeians. The son of Gaius Marcius Rutilus, the first plebeian censor, was himself censor twice, and took the name Censorinus, which was thereafter passed down in this family for several centuries.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 682 ("Gaius Marcius Rutilus").
After this family, the next cognomen of the Marcii was Philippus, a Greek name, which first appears as the surname of Quintus Marcius, the consul of 281 BC; but this may anticipate the adoption of the name by his descendant, for a certain Lucius Marcius of this family is said to have had some connection with Philip V of Macedon; his son, Quintus Marcius Philippus, was consul in 186 BC, and it may therefore have been Lucius who was the first to obtain the cognomen. The initial cognomen of the family may have been Tremulus, since the filiations given in the Fasti link Quintus Marcius Tremulus, consul in 306, and his probable son Quintus Marcius Philippus, consul in 281. Philippus means "lover of horses", and the name had for centuries been associated with the Macedonian kings; Philip II was the father of Alexander the Great. So wide was the fame of this dynasty, that it is not entirely impossible that the name had reached Rome at an earlier date. The Philippi were proud of this association since Lucius Marcius Philippus, the consul of 91, even put the portrait of Philip V of Macedon on the denarii he minted.Chase, p. 114.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 285 ("Marcius Philippus", nos. 1–3).Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, pp. 307, 308.
Friedrich Münzer considers that the Marcii bearing the cognomen Figulus ("potter") were linked to the Philippi; the first of that name might have been the second son of Quintus Marcius Philippus, the consul of 281.PW, vol. 28, pp. 1557, 1558. The Figuli flourished until the end of the Republic, and obtained two consulships.
Ralla seems to be the next surname of the Marcii, first appearing toward the close of the third century BC. It may mean "scraper", and Chase suggests a common origin with the radula, or "scraper", a standard carpentry tool. This family is only found in history for a brief period.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 640 ("Ralla").
The cognomen Rex, meaning "king", is usually interpreted as an allusion to the family's traditional descent from Numa Pompilius and Ancus Marcius.Chase, p. 112. However, another possibility is that the surname was borne by the descendants of a certain Marcus Marcius, Rex Sacrorum, during the third century BC, and perhaps the first plebeian to hold that office.Broughton, vol. I, p. 282.Goldberg, "Priests and Politicians", p. 343.
Members
Early Marcii
Marcus Marcius, a kinsman of Numa Pompilius, who together with Numa's father, Pompo, persuaded him to accept the Roman Kingdom.Plutarch, "The Life of Numa", 5–7. Numa Marcius M. f., the son of Marcus, was an intimate friend of Numa Pompilius, and accompanied him to Rome, where he was enrolled in the Senate, and created the first Pontifex Maximus. According to Plutarch, when the king died after a reign of forty-three years, Numa Marcius contended with Tullus Hostilius for the throne, but being defeated he starved himself to death.Plutarch, "The Life of Numa", 21.Livy, i. 20. Numa Marcius Numae f. M. n., the son of Numa Marcius, served as under Tullus Hostilius. He married Pompilia, daughter of Numa Pompilius, and was the father of Ancus Marcius.Plutarch, "The Life of Coriolanus", 1.Tacitus, Annales, vi. 11. Ancus Marcius Numae f. Numae n., the fourth King of Rome, according to tradition restored many religious ceremonies that Tullus Hostilius had neglected, but also ably defended the city in times of war. To him are credited many improvements in and around the city of Rome, including the fortification of the Janiculum, the building of a bridge over the Tiber, and the settling of captured Latins on the Aventine Hill.Livy, i. 32, 33.Dionysius, iii. 36–45.Cicero, De Republica ii. 18.Arnold, vol. i, p. 19. Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, a legendary Roman soldier who led the charge that captured the Volscian town of Corioli. He subsequently became a fierce opponent of the plebeians, urging that they surrender the hard-won office of tribune of the plebs before grain could be purchased for them during a famine. Rather than face trial for his effrontery, he fled into exile among the Volsci, then led a Volscian force against Rome, withdrawing only at the pleas of his mother and sister. He was the subject of one of Shakespeare's history plays.Livy, ii. 34–40.Dionysius, vii. 20–viii. 59.Plutarch, "The Life of Coriolanus".Niebuhr, vol. ii, pp. 94–107, 234–260.Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Coriolanus. Manius Marcius, plebeian aedile BC, offered corn to the people for one as per modius, a very low price. The date of this magistrate is uncertain and still debated.Pliny, xviii. 18.Broughton, vol. I, p. 56. Gnaeus (or Gaius) Marcius, tribune of the plebs in 389 BC, prosecuted Quintus Fabius Ambustus, one of three brothers who were sent as ambassadors to the Gauls at Clusium, but who instead of negotiating joined the citizens of Clusium in attacking the Gauls, precipitating the Gallic sack of Rome in 390.Livy, vi. 1.
Marcii Rutili
Gaius Marcius Rutilus, grandfather of the consul. Lucius Marcius C. f. Rutilus, father of the consul. Gaius Marcius L. f. C. n. Rutilus, consul in 357 BC, and the first plebeian dictator in 356, triumphed over the Etruscans. He was consul for the second time in 352, and became the first plebeian censor in 351 BC. He was consul again in 344 and 342, on the latter occasion the First Samnite War, during which he quelled a conspiracy among the Roman troops.Livy, vii. 16, 17, 21, 22, 28, 38, 39.Niebuhr, vol. iii, p. 556.Kamm, p. 13. Gaius Marcius C. f. L. n. Rutilus Censorinus, tribune of the plebs in 311 BC, he and his colleague, Lucius Atilius, succeeded in passing a law requiring the military tribunes to be elected by the people. He was consul in 310 BC, during the Second Samnite War, together with Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus. While Fabius campaigned against the Etruscans, Marcius fought against the Samnites, and captured the town of Allifae, but was seriously wounded in a subsequent battle. He was one of the first plebeian pontiffs in 300 BC, and served as censor in 294; elected censor a second time in 265, he is said to have brought forward a law precluding anyone from holding the censorship twice in the future.Livy, ix. 30, 33, 38, x. 9, 47, Epitome 16.Diodorus Siculus, xx. 27.Eutropius, ii. 18.Valerius Maximus, iv. 1. § 3. He was perhaps the first princeps senatus, appointed BC.Ryan, Rank and Participation, p. 170.
Marcii Censorini
Gaius Marcius Censorinus, descendant of Gaius Marcius Rutilus, the first plebeian censor. Gaius Marcius C. f. Censorinus, father Lucius Marcius Censorinus, the consul of 149 BC.