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F · U · R · I · A
Furius is the nomen of members of the gens Furia, a prominent patrician family of the Roman Republic. The name first appears in history, according to Livy, when a fetialis named Spurius Furius was sent by king Tullus Hostilius to make a treaty with Alba, c. 670 B.C. The origins of the gens are obscure and can only be inferred from limited and ambiguous evidence.
While there are no other records of the family during the era of the Roman kings, a Furius was made consul in 488, with two more following within the next twenty years. These first Furii of prominence bore the cognomen Medullinus, which indicates the family was originally from Medullia, a Latin town northeast of Rome and settled from Alba, which had willingly aligned with Romulus and was then made a Roman colony. The Tullii Hostilii also came to Rome from the same town.
A commonly accepted supposition that the gens Furia derived from Tusculum is based on a few sepulchral inscriptions from the middle- to late-Republican era. Tusculum was not given the Roman franchise until 381 B.C., although it is possible some patrician families were given Roman citizenship at an earlier date. The town was, in fact, annexed peacefully to Rome by Marcus Furius Camillus, which has led to some suggestion that he had personal influence at Tusculum.
However, Camillus descended directly from the Medullini, the Furia branch that held the very highest political and religious offices in Rome in the century preceding Tusculum’s incorporation into Rome’s territory. The context of sources such as Plutarch’s Life of Camillus suggest the strong historical attachment of this statesman, five times dictator, to Rome and its traditions. Furthermore, when Camillus went into exile in 391, he went to Ardea, not Tusculum. It was from Ardea that he raised an army to rescue Rome from siege by the Gauls in 390.
The Triumph of Marcus Furius Camillus, Francesco de Rossi Salviati Cecchino
Whether the Furii were Romans before the treaty of 493 that ended war between Rome and the Latin League or a Latin family given Roman citizenship at that time, the Furii rose to the highest ranks of the Roman establishment immediately thereafter. Within the next century, members of the gens Furia held the offices of pontifex maximus, consul, censor, and dictator. No less than 20 members of the family attained the highest magistracies of the Roman state from 488 down to the end of the Third Punic War in 146, often multiple times each. In addition, other Furii held important priesthoods, minor magistracies, and offices of military command. At least four Furii celebrated triumphs – against Gauls, Ligurians, Pedani, and Tiburtes – between 367 and 200 B.C.
Thereafter, the most prominent late-Republican Furii were moneyers, jurists, and poets. A few others held minor magistracies.
Some Furii branches managed to survive with their fortunes intact into the imperial era despite the bias against and suspicion of patrician families. The first consular member of the gens during the Principate was Marcus Furius Camillus, honored by the Senate with the insignia of a triumph (with the consent of Tiberius) for his defeat of the Numidian chief Tacfarinas when he was proconsul of Africa in 17 A.D. Later Furii held office as consuls, legionary legates, governors of provinces, imperial officials, and prefects of Rome.
Even before the suppression of the cults of the ancient gods, a few prominent Furii of the middle and late 4th Century A.D. converted to the Christian religion. One, Furius Pammachius, a senator, gave his fortune to charitable works and engaged in scholarly debate. Recognized by the Church as a saint after his death, the legacy of the Furii remains a part of history through his feast day, August 30.
The early cognomens of the gens Furia are Medullinus, Fusus, Pacilus, and Camillus. Later Republican cognomens are Bibaculus, Philus, Purpureo, Nobilor, and Crassipes. A few late Republican Furii stirps were plebeian, such as the Luscus branch, probably descending from freedmen of the patrician branches of the gens. It is not certain whether the late-Republican stirps Brocchus is patrician or not. The patrician stirps of the gens in the imperial era include the Camillus (revived), Placidus, Orfitus, and Octavianus branches, each of which provided consulars.
Written by M. Fabius Furius
Sources Consulted:
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith (1870), available at The Ancient Library.
Titus Livius, The History of Rome, translated by Rev. Canon Roberts.
Theodor Mommsen, The History of Rome, Book I, Chapter 7.
The Fasti Triumphales.
“Marcus Furius Camillus” at Livius.org.
Plutarch, Life of Camillus.
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