The nomenPopillius resembles other names ending in -illius and -ellius, which were generally formed directly from cognomina, but perhaps, like Poplius, it should be classified with those ending in -ilus, typically formed from other names and words ending in -ulus, which could, like Popillius, be spelled with either a single or double 'l'. This suggests that the root of the nomen is the Latin word populus, the people.[2]
The chief praenomina of the Popillii were Marcus, Gaius, and Publius, all of which were among the most common names at all periods of Roman history. The other praenomina associated with the Popillii are Titus and Quintus which were also very common.
The only distinct family of the Popillii mentioned during the Republic bore the surname Laenas, cloaked.[3]Cicero describes the incident believed to have given rise to the cognomen: Marcus Popillius, the Flamen Carmentalis, was performing a public sacrifice in his sacerdotal cloak, or laena, when he learned of a riot occasioned by strife between the plebeians and the patrician nobility. He rushed from the sacrifice, still wearing his cloak, hoping to calm the plebeians.[4] His descendants seem not to have shared his disposition; as the historian William Ihne put it, "the family of the Laenates was unfavourably distinguished even among the Romans for their sternness, cruelty, and haughtiness of character." The name is occasionally found as Lenas in some manuscripts of Livy. A number of Popillii are mentioned without a surname, but some of them may have belonged to the same family.[5]
Marcus Popillius M. f. C. n. Laenas, consul in 359 BC, said to have been the Flamen Carmentalis who first earned the surname Laenas. He repulsed an attack by the Tiburtines, and in his second consulship in 356, drove them into the refuge of their towns. He was the first plebeian to receive a triumph, after defeating the Gauls during his third consulship, in 350, and was consul for the fourth time in 348.[6][7]
Marcus Popillius M. f. M. n. Laenas, consul in 316 BC.[8]
Publius Popillius P. f. P. n. Laenas, appointed one of the triumvirs to establish a colony near PisaeinEtruria in 180 BC, together with his brother, Marcus, the consul of 173.[9]
Marcus Popillius P. f. P. n. Laenas, consul in 173 BC, defeated a force of Ligures, destroyed their city, and sold the survivors into slavery, to the consternation of the senate, which ordered him in vain to restore them to liberty. Through the influence of his family, Laenas escaped punishment, and held the censorship in 159. He was also an ambassador sent to Aetolia in 174.[10][11][12][13]
Gaius Popillius P. f. P. n. Laenas, consul in 172 BC, the first year that both consuls were plebeians. He was subsequently an ambassador to Greece, and intervened in the war between Antiochus and Ptolemy VI by frightening Antiochus with a line drawn in the sand. He was consul for the second time in 158.[14][15][16][17][18][13]
Publius Popillius C. f. P. n. Laenas, consul in 132 BC, prosecuted the supporters of Tiberius Gracchus, who had been murdered the previous year. Gaius Gracchus then brought forward a law to punish those who had condemned a Roman citizen without a trial, and Popillius chose to go into exile rather than facing trial himself. He returned following the death of Gracchus.[22][23][24][25]
Gaius Popillius C. f. C. n. Laenas, whose eloquence is described by Cicero, may be the same Gaius Popillius who was convicted of peculatus (embezzlement).[26]
Publius Popillius Laenas, a partisan of Marius, as tribune of the plebs in 85 BC, condemned his predecessor, Sextus Lucilius, to be hurled from the Tarpeian Rock, and banished the other members of his college.[28]
Popillius Laenas, a senator whose conversation with Caesar on the Ides of March, 44 BC, made Brutus and the other assassins fear that their conspiracy had been revealed;[29] he appears in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar as 'Popilius Lena'.
Titus Popillius, a Roman legate who participated in the siege of Capua in 211 BC, during the Second Punic War.[31]
Publius Popillius, one of the ambassadors sent to Syphax, king of Numidia, in 210 BC.[32]
Gaius Popillius Sabellus, an eques, who fought against the Istri in 178 BC, and was noted for his courage.[33]
Gaius Popillius C.f., praetor in 133 BC who presided over a meeting of the Senate when it decreed instructions for future governors of Asia to maintain the acts of Attalus III.[34][35]
Quintus Popillius P. f., a senator in 129 BC. Despite having the same filiation, the two senators of 129 were not directly related, as Quintus belonged to the tribus Romilia and Gaius was from Teretina.[36]
Popillia, mother of the general and orator Quintus Lutatius Catulus, and, by another husband, of Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo and Lucius Julius Caesar, consul in 90 BC. When she died, her son Catulus gave a funeral oration, mentioned by Cicero as the first occasion that such an honour was paid to a Roman matron.[37]
Publius Popillius, son of a freedman, whom Cicero describes as having been convicted of bribery, in his oration, Pro Cluentio.[38]
Appianus Alexandrinus (Appian), Bella Celtica (The Gallic Wars), Bella Mithridatica (The Mithridatic Wars), Bellum Civile (The Civil War), Hispanica (The Spanish Wars), Syriaca (The Syrian Wars).
