Merenda

• a Roman surname: T. Antonius Merenda, a consul, A. U. C. 304, Liv. 3, 35.

was a surname, of rare occunrence in the Antonian and Cornelian gentes at Rome. Merenda signifies the mid-day meal (Fest. m v. p. 123, Muell. ed.; Non. p. 28, 32; comp. Isidor. Orig. 20.2.12), and the word, unchanged in form, is extant in the modern Neapolitan dialect. The Merenda branch of the Gens Antonia was patrician (Dionys. A. R. 10.58) [Antonia Gens].

1. T. Antonius Merenda, was decemvir in B. C. 450-49, and was defeated by the Aequians on the Algidus. (Dionys. A. R. 10.58, 11.23, 33; Liv. 3.35, 38, 41, 42; Fasti.)

2. Q. Antonius Merenda, T. F., probably a son of the preceding, was tribune of the soldiers, with consular authority, in B. C. 422. (Liv. 4.42; Fasti.)

3. Servius Cornelius Merenda, was legatus in B. C. 275, to the consul L. Cornelius Lentulus [Lentulus, No. 5], and was presented by him, for the capture of a town in Sanmium, with a golden chaplet of five pounds' weight. In the following year Merenda was consul, and again commanded in Samnium and Lucania. (Plin. Nat. 33.11; Fasti.) [W.B.D]