Rome was a civilization that grew out of the city-state of Rome, founded in the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC. During its twelve-century existence, the Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy to an oligarchic republic to a vast empire. It came to dominate Western Europe and the entire area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea through conquest and assimilation.
In ancient Rome, a gens (pl. gentes) was a clan, or group of families, that shared a common name (the nomen) and a belief in a common ancestor. In the Roman naming convention, the second name was the name of the gens to which the person belonged. The term has also been used to refer to families within a clan system in other contexts, including tribal clans.
The origins of the gentes are unclear, although they are probably not as ancient as the Romans themselves thought; although some were associated with particular cults or ceremonies, all were primarily personal and familial in nature, with no specific political or public duties. Also, the gentes did not usually have legendary founders that were worshipped, and the gentile assemblies are not recorded to have passed any sort of legally binding resolutions. Few of the names have clear Indo-European etymologies, and some have been traced to Etruscan names.
Nevertheless, the relationships of the gentes was a major factor in politics; members of the same gens were "family", and therefore frequently (though not always) political allies.
Gentes did have a legal standing in republican Rome. 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; in fact, some notable members of patrician gentes had themselves adopted by plebeian families in order to run for offices not open to the patricii. Members of a gens had a legal obligation to help one another when asked. A gens was exogamous; that is, individuals could not seek marriage partners from within the gens.
A gens was patrilineal and patriarchal. However, such customs were not necessarily inherited from the Italics; the Etruscans could have exercised them also. By the time of republican Rome, Etruscan culture as a whole was fast assimilating to the Italic. The gentes were probably mixed.
Originally the plebeians and patricians were not allowed to intermarry, and several patrician families had collapsed as a result, until the Lex Canuleia, allowing intermarriage, was passed.
Among the patrician gentes there were two categories, the gentes maiores, and the gentes minores. The maiores were the leading families of Rome: these were the Aemilii, Claudii, Cornelii, Fabii, and Valerii, and they claimed special religious and secular privileges.
Foundation of Rome is lost in the deep of legends . It is told that the ancestor of Romulus is nothing else than Aeneas , the Hero from Troy escaped from the destruction of his own city by Greek hands. The Raise of Rome is also spotted by a murder .And from a certain point of view much of the Roman History can be interpreted at the light of those troubled beginnings. From, the very first days the Romans distinguished themselves for a strong military tradition and o aggressive politics to be judged sometimes even bloodly...
The Gens Valeria is one of the most Important Families that testify the most ancient political traditions of the Patricians.The Roman Republic has always seen them as protagonists since the very beginning,With their ancestor Publius Valerius Publicola (or Poplicola, his surname meaning "friend of the people") (– 503 BC) .He was a Roman consul, the colleague of Lucius Junius Brutus in 509 BC, traditionally considered the first year of the Roman Republic. According to Livy and Plutarch, his family, whose ancestor Volusus had settled in Rome at the time of King Titus Tatius, was of Sabine origin. He took a prominent part in the expulsion of the last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and though not originally chosen as the colleague of Brutus he soon took the place of Tarquinius Collatinus.
On the death of Brutus, which left him sole consul, the people began to fear that he was aiming at kingly power. To calm their apprehensions he discontinued the building of his house on the top of the Velian Hill, and also gave orders that the fasces should be lowered whenever he appeared before the people. He further introduced two laws to protect the liberties of the citizens, one enacting that whosoever should attempt to make himself a king might be slain by any man at any time, while another provided an appeal to the people on behalf of any citizen condemned by a magistrate. He died in 503 BC, and was buried at the public expense, the matrons mourning him for ten months.One of his own descendants is one of the most celebrated heroes of ancient republic , Marcus Valerius Corvus (370 BC - 270 BC) was a Roman hero of the 4th century BC, characterized as a farmer who lived to be one hundred.His list of accomplishments is long , as tribune, defeats a giant Gaul in single combat, helped by a crow or raven (thus the cognomen) 348 - consul, at age of 22 ,defeats the Volsci, the Samnites , the Cales , the Aequi and the Etruscans several times Consul and even Dictator
In more than one occasions , members of the Gens Valeria maked themselves bringers of the traditions of the old republic and defenders of the fatherland from foreign attacks but even pacifiers between the constant attritions between the plebeians and the patricians....
The Gens Valeria is one of the most ancient of Rome , and as such , is very respected and even feared by the other gentes rose to power latrer in republican times .
The Valerians have always kept an important role in the power control of the republic , and so are used to use it . For this reason now they control the southern Italy . The great Ambitions of the Valerians are sustained by their military tradition and politics thanks to this they can face every external menace but even the enemies from within the same republic beeing able so to extend the power of Rome to all the Known world....
RES GESTAE part 2 : GENS VALERIA
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..... hurry up and release it....
Originally Posted by PROMETHEUS ts
