Manlius Capitōlīnus, Marcus, according to Roman tradition, a commander who held the Capitol against the Gauls when they sacked Rome c.390 BC. It is said that, awakened by the cackling of the sacred geese while sleeping in his house on the Capitol, dogs having failed to give warning, he summoned the guards and repulsed a surprise attack by the Gauls. Thereafter the feeding of the sacred geese was a charge on the state. In an annual commemoration geese were carried on litters with purple and gold cushions, and dogs were crucified on stakes of elder (a ritual which survived into Christian times). In the political crisis that followed the withdrawal of the Gauls, Manlius, though a patrician, is said to have supported the poor who were suffering under the stringent laws of debt. He was accused of attempting to make himself tyrant and was thrown to his death from the Tarpeian rock (see TARPEIA). After his death and disgrace no other member of the family received the praenomen Marcus.
The gens Manlia was one of the oldest and noblest patrician houses at Rome, from the earliest days of the Republic until imperial times. The first of the gens to obtain the consulship was Gnaeus Manlius Cincinnatus, consul in 480 BC. The family was probably numbered amongst the gentes maiores, the most important of the patrician families.[1]
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The Manlii were said to hail from the ancient Latin city of Tusculum. The nomen Manlia may be a patronymic surname, based on the praenomen Manius, presumably the name of an ancestor of the gens. The gens Manilia was derived from the same name. However, Manius was not used by any of the Manlii in historical times.[1]
The Manlii used the praenomina Publius, Gnaeus, Aulus, Lucius, and Marcus. The Manlii Torquati also favored the name Titus, using primarily that, Aulus, and Lucius.[1]
A well-known story relates that after Marcus Manlius Capitolinus was condemned for treason, the Roman Senate decreed that henceforth none of the gens should bear the praenomen Marcus. However, this legend may have originated as a way to explain the scarcity of the name amongst the Manlii, as the name was occasionally used in later generations.[1]
The earliest cognomen found amongst the Manlii is Cincinnatus, better known as a cognomen of the Quinctii. This name, probably referring to a person with fine, curly hair, may have been a personal surname, as it does not seem to have been used by later generations. The cognomen Vulso appeared shortly thereafter, and this family flourished for over three hundred years. Several other early Manlii appear without cognomina.[1]
The family of the Capitolini was descended from the Vulsones, and appears at the beginning of the 4th century BC. The surname Capitolinus probably indicates that the family lived on the Capitoline Hill, although the role of Marcus Manlius in saving the Capitol from the Gauls during the sack of Rome in 390 BC is also credited with establishing the name in his family. The surname was relatively short-lived amongst the Manlii, being replaced by that of Torquatus. Imperiosus was a cognomen belonging to some of the Capitolini and Torquati, bestowed on account of their imperious manner.[1]
The Torquati were descended from the Capitolini, and obtained their surname from Titus Manlius Imperiosus, who defeated a giant Gaul during a battle in 361 BC, and took his torque as a trophy, placing it around his own neck. The descendants of Torquatus remained prominent until the final decades of the Republic.[1]
The Manlii Acidini rose to prominence during the Second Punic War, and like the Torquati, held the highest offices of the state from then until the end of the Republic.[1]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1867). "article name needed". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
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