Licinia

10, 11, 12. Liciniae. [Licinia.]

1. The wife of Claudius Asellus [Asellus, No. 3], lived about the middle of the second century B. C. When she and Publicia were accused of murdering their husbands, they gave bail to the praetor for their appearance, but were put to death by order of their relatives, consequently by a judicium domesticum. (Liv. Epit. 48; V. Max. 6.3.8; Rein, Criminalrecht der Römer, p. 407.)

2. A vestal virgin, and the daughter of C. Licinius Crassus, tribune of the plebs, B. C. 145 [Crassus, No. 3]. She dedicated in B. C. 123 a chapel in a public place; but the college of pontiffs declared, when the matter was laid before them by order of the senate, that the dedication was invalid, as it had been made in a public place, without the command of the people: the chapel was therefore removed. (Cic. pro Dom. 53.) The preceding Licinia appears to be the same vestal virgin who was accused of incest, together with two of her companions, in B. C. 114. It appears that a Roman knight of the name of L. Veturius had seduced Aemilia, one of the vestals, and that, anxious to have companions in her guilt, she had induced Marcia and Licinia to submit to the embraces of the friends of her seducer. Marcia confined her favours to her original lover; but Licinia and Aemilia had intercourse with numerous other persons; their guilt notwithstanding remained a secret for some time, till at length a slave, called Manius, who had assisted them in all their intrigues, disappointed in receiving neither his freedom nor the rewards which had been promised him, informed against them. All three were brought to trial; but as the college of pontiffs, of which the president at the time was L. Metellus, condemned (in December, see Macrob. Saturn. 1.10) only Aemilia, but acquitted Licinia and Marcia, the subject was brought before the people by Sex. Peducaeus, the tribune of the plebs. The people adopted the unusual course of taking the matter out of the hands of the pontiffs, by appointing L. Cassius Longinus [Longinus, No. 4] to investigate the matter; and he condemned not only Licinia, who was defended by L. Crassus, the orator, and Marcia, but also many others. The severity with which he acted on this occasion was generally reprobated by public opinion. The orator M. Antonius was accused of being one of the paramours of these virgins, but was acquitted. [Antonius, No. 8.]

Various measures were adopted to purify the state from the pollution which had been brought upon it by these crimes. A temple was built to the honour of Venus Verticordia, and four men were buried alive in the forum boarium, two Greeks and two Gauls, in accordance with the commands of the Sibylline books. This history of Licinia's crimes is of some importance, since it shows us that, even as early as this time, the Roman ladies of the higher orders had already begun to be infected with that licentious profligacy which was afterwards exhibited with such shamelessness by the Messallinas and Faustinas of the empire. (Dio Cass. Fr. 92; Oros. 5.15; Plut. Quaest. Rom. p. 284b.; Ascon. ad Cic. Mil. 12, p. 46, ed. Orelli; Cic. de Nat. Deor. 3.30, Brut. 43; Obsequ. 97; Liv. Epit. 63.)

The vestal virgin Licinia, with whom the triumvir M. Crassus was accused of having had intercourse (Plut. Crass. 1), must have been a different person from the preceding, as M. Crassus was not born before B. C. 114. She may perhaps have been the same as the vestal virgin Licinia, the relation of L. Murena, who was of assistance to the latter in his canvass for the consulship, in B. C. 63. (Cic. pro Mur. 35.73.)

3. A daughter of P. Licinius Crassus, consul B. C. 131, married C. Sulpicius Galba, who was condemned in B. C. 110, for having been bribed by Jugurtha [Galba, No. 8]. (Cic. Brut. 26, 33, de Orat. 1.56; comp. Tac. Hist. 1.15.)

4. The sister of No. 3, was married to C. Sempronius Gracchus, the celebrated tribune of the plebs. (Plut. C. Gracch. 17; Dig. 24. tit. 3. s. 66.)

5. The daughter of L. Licinius Crassus the orator, consul B. C. 95, married P. Scipio Nasica, praetor B. C. 94, who was the son of P. Scipio Nasica, consul B. C. 111. Both she and her sister [No. 6] were distinguished for the purity and elegance with which they spoke the Latin language, an accomplishment which their mother Mucia, and their grandmother Laelia equally possessed. (Cic. Brut. 58.)

6. A sister of the preceding, was the wife of the younger Marius. Hence we find the elder Marius spoken of as the affinis of the orator Crassus (Cic. pro Balb. 21, de Orat. 1.15.66, 3.2.8). An impostor of the name of Amatius or Herophilus, pretended to have sprung from this marriage. [Amatius.]

a celebrated plebeian gens, to which belonged C. Licinius Calvus Stolo, whose exertions threw open the consulship to the plebeians, and which became one of the most illustrious gentes in the latter days of the republic, by the Crassi and Luculli, who were likewise members of it. The origin of the gens is uncertain. A bilingual inscription, published by Lanzi (Saggio di Lingua Etrusc. vol. ii. p. 342, Rom. 1789), shows that the name of Lecne, which frequently occurs in Etruscan sepulchral monuments, corresponds to that of Licinius, and hence it would appear that the family was of Etruscan origin. This opinion is thought to be supported by the fact, that in the consulship of C. Licinius Calvus Stolo, B. C. 364, Etruscan players took part in the public games at Rome; but as it is recorded by Livy that scenic games were established in this year to avert the anger of the gods, and that Etruscan players were accordingly sent for (Liv. 7.2), it is not necessary to imagine that this was done simply because Licinius kept up his connection with Etruria. We moreover find the name in the cities of Latium, both in the form of a cognomen (Licinus), and of the gentile name (Licinius). Thus we meet in Tusculum with the Porcii Licini [Licinus], and in Lanuvium with the Licinii Murenae [Murena]. The name would therefore seem to have been originally spread both through Etruria and Latium.

The first member of this gens who obtained the consulship, was the celebrated C. Licinius Calvus Stolo, in B. C. 364; and from this period down to the later times of the empire, the Licinii constantly held some of the higher offices of the state, until eventually they obtained the imperial dignity. [See below, p. 783.]

The family-names of this gens are, Calvus (with the agnomens Esquilinus and Stolo), Crassus (with the agnomen Dives ), Geta, Lucullus, Macer, Murena, Nerva, Sacerdos, Varus. The other cognomens of this gens are personal surnames rather than family-names: they are Archias, Caecina [Caecina, No. 10], DAMASIPPUS, Imbrex, Lartius, Lenticulus, Nepos, Proculus, Regulus, Rufinus, Squillus, Tegula. The only cognomens which occur on coins are Crassus, Macer, Alurena, Nerva, Stolo. A few Licinii occur without a surname: they are, with one or two exceptions, freedmen, and are given under Licinius.