Were there any Roman families with genealogy surviving the migration period of early Middle Ages?

Answer 1

I have not found any yet, but this is a really interesting question, and I will keep looking. This is what I have found so far.

The Roman Empire was permanently divided into the West Roman Empire and the East Roman Empire in 395. The government of the East Roman Empire was Greek, but it is hard to imagine that there could have been no families there that came from Rome. The East Roman Empire lasted until 1453. Our historians refer to it as the Byzantine Empire, but the people in it called it the Empire of the Roman People.

One of the most conservative bodies in the Roman Empire was the Senate, and seats in the Senate tended to go to people whose ancestors had been in the Senate. Though it had been pretty much striped of all power by the emperors, the Germanic kings saw that it would enhance their own authority if they kept it alive, so they actually revived some of its lost power. The East Roman Empire had its own Senate, but when it retook Italy in the sixth century, they seem to have allowed the West Roman Senate to continue its work. The last recorded act of the West Roman Senate was done in 603 AD, and there is no record of when it ceased to function. It is entirely possible that some of the families of the Roman Senate were among the old families of Rome.

I looked at lists of Popes, but did not find anything. I also looked at lists of famous Italians of the Middle Ages, or at least those who had Latin looking names, and have not yet found anything.

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The politicians of the Roman gens Anicia were still active in government as consuls in the sixth century. Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius, who is believed to have been of this family, was the last Roman to have the title Roman consul who was not also emperor. This was in 541.

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Julius Celsus was active as a scholar in Constantinople in the seventh century. He was of the gens Julia, which also produced Julius Caesar.

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This what I am finding. There were very few records kept in the period of about 600 to 800 AD. This makes searching for patrician families difficult unless there was some connection to government. Also, when the Roman Gentes are examined, it can be seen that they disappeared from history as time passed, even in the best times. I would guess that half of those recorded under the Republic disappeared by the time of the Empire. Very few are represented by historic individuals active at the time of the fall of the Western Empire.

The Germanic people under Odoacer and the Ostrogoths both took some pride in maintaining the appearance of legitimacy for their governments, and so they maintained the senate, and they maintained the noble families. But the Lombards did not do this. And when the Byzantines invaded Italy, they replaced the local people, who did not usually support them, with more trustworthy people of Greek origin. Noble Roman families of other parts of the West did not fair even this well. So, while I would bet there were Roman families that kept up a genealogy going back to ancient times, even after the period of the migrations, they are clearly not easy to find, and it may be that there were none, or that those that existed had genealogies based on fictions.

Of course, Greek families, living in the East Roman Empire, continued.