Antonia gens

The gens Antonia was a Roman family of great antiquity, with both patrician and plebeian branches.

The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Titus Antonius Merenda, one of the second group of Decemviri called, in 450 BC, to help draft what became the Law of the Twelve Tables.

[1] Marcus Antonius, the triumvir, claimed that his gens was descended from Anton, a son of Heracles.

There are also a few instances of Aulus, while Marcus Antonius the triumvir named one of his sons Iulus.

The patrician Antonii bear the cognomen Merenda; the plebeian Antonii bear no surname under the Republic, with the exception of Quintus Antonius, propraetor in Sardinia in the time of Sulla, who is called Balbus on coins.