- A patrilineal clan of ancient Rome composed of several families of the same name claiming a common ancestor and belonging to a common religious cult.
- Anthropology. An exogamous patrilineal clan.
[Latin gēns.]
gens
Dictionary:
gens (jĕnz)  |
n., pl., gen·tes (jĕn'tēz').
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: gens |
For more information on gens, visit Britannica.com.
| Classical Literature Companion: gens |
gens (pl. gentēs), in the Roman social system, a ‘clan’ or group of families bearing a common name or nomen (see NAMES) and descended in the male line from one ancestor whom, in distinction from the Greeks, they neither recorded nor worshipped (compare genos). Originally the gentes were aristocratic, patrician families, but in early times the wealthiest plebeian families organized themselves also into gentes and some probably gained admission to the patrician gentes. This supposition, if correct, would explain the existence of both patrician and plebeian families within the same gens. A gens had certain common property (including a burial ground), held meetings of its members, and performed religious rites in common.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: gens |
gens (jĕnz), ancient Roman kinship group. It was the counterpart of what is known in other societies as a patrilineal clan or sib, and the word has been used in social science as a generic term for such groupings. The members of the Roman gens were descended (or assumed to be descended) from a common ancestor, whose name was used by all the members of the group. The second name was the gens name (e.g., Tullius in Marcus Tullius Cicero). The members were united in worship of the common ancestor, and marriage within the gens was discouraged. In early Rome the gens had economic, political, religious, and social functions; it later came to mean little more than a family name. The Greek gens (genos) was similar to the Roman.
| Wikipedia: Gens |
This article is about ancient Rome. For the Sega Genesis emulator, see Gens (emulator). For the race of brood parasites, see Gens (behaviour).
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This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009) |
In ancient Rome, a gens (pl. gentes) was a family or clan that shared a common name (the nomen, plural nomina) and a belief in a common ancestor. In the Roman system of three names, the second name was the name of the gens to which the person belonged.
The origins of the gentes are unclear, although they are probably not as ancient as the Romans themselves thought. Few of the gens names have clear Indo-European etymologies, and some have been traced to Etruscan names.
Some gentes were associated by tradition with particular cults or ceremonies, but while one's gens-identity was based in kinship, during the Republic these public religious functions were not hereditary, though sons often succeeded fathers in certain priesthoods such as the Flamen Martialis. Nevertheless, the relationships among the gentes was a major factor in politics, particularly through marriage and adoption. On rare occasions, notable members of patrician gentes had themselves adopted by plebeian families in order to run for offices not open to the patricii.[1] Members of the same gens were usually (though far from always) political allies.
During the Republic, the gens as a legal entity owned property, including a family burial ground. There was a gens "chief", more formally in early Rome and less formally in later Rome (compare paterfamilias). Members of a gens had a legal obligation[dubious ] to help one another when asked. A gens was exogamous; that is, individuals sought marriage partners from outside the gens.
A gens was patrilineal and patriarchal. Originally patricians and plebeians were not allowed to intermarry, until the Lex Canuleia was passed in 445 BC.
Among the patricians, there were gentes maiores and the gentes minores. The maiores were the leading families of Rome: these were the Aemilii, Claudii, Cornelii, Fabii, and Valerii.
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See also
Further reading
- C.J. Smith, The Roman Clan: The gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology (Cambridge University Press, 2006). Limited preview online.
References
- ^ Perhaps the most famous instance being Publius Clodius Pulcher, who was tribune of the plebs in 58 BC.
External links
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Classical Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Copyright © 1993, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Gens". Read more |
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