Genucia (gens)

The gens Genucia was a prominent family of the Roman Republic. It was probably of patrician origin, but most of the Genucii appearing in history were plebeian. The first of the Genucii to hold the consulship was Titus Genucius Augurinus in 451 BC.

The Genucii have traditionally been regarded as a gens with both patrician and plebeian branches, in part because they held consulships in 451 and 445 BC, when the office is generally supposed to have been closed to the plebeians. But in support of the argument that Titus Genucus Augurinus, the consul of 451, was a plebeian, it has been noted that several other consuls in the decades preceding the decemvirate bore names that in later times were regarded as plebeian. Further, Diodorus Siculus gives the consul's name as Minucius. But Livy, Dionysius, and the Capitoline Fasti all give Genucius, and the same man is supposed to have been one of the first college of decemvirs; all of the other decemvirs that year were patricians. If the consulship were not absolutely closed to the plebeians before the decemvirate, all historical sources agree that it was when Marcus Genucius was consul in 445.

Plebeian Genucii appear as early as 476 BC, when a Titus Genucius was Tribune of the Plebs. If the gens was originally patrician, then the plebeian Genucii may have arisen as the result of intermarriage with the plebeians, or because some of the Genucii were expelled from the patriciate or voluntarily chose to become plebeians. Throughout the history of the Republic, these Genucii were renowned as representatives of and advocates for the rights of the plebeian order.

The Genucii of the Republic favoured the praenomina Lucius, Titus, Marcus, and Gnaeus, all of which were very common throughout Roman history.

The surnames of the Genucii under the Republic included Aventinensis, Augurinus, Cipus or Cippus, and Clepsina.

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