Cornelia gens
[1] For more than seven hundred years, from the early decades of the Republic to the third century AD, the Cornelii produced more eminent statesmen and generals than any other gens.
Together with the Aemilii, Claudii, Fabii, Manlii, and Valerii, the Cornelii were almost certainly numbered among the gentes maiores, the most important and powerful families of Rome, who for centuries dominated the Republican magistracies.
[2] The origin of the Cornelii is lost to history, but the nomen Cornelius may be formed from the hypothetical cognomen Corneus, meaning "horny", that is, having thick or callused skin.
Other names occur infrequently; Tiberius appears once amongst the Lentuli, who later revived the old surname Cossus as a praenomen, while the Cornelii Sullae made use of Faustus.
The surnames Arvina, Blasio, Cethegus, Cinna, Cossus, Dolabella, Lentulus, Maluginensis, Mammula, Merenda, Merula, Rufinus, Scapula, Scipio, Sisenna, and Sulla belonged to patrician Cornelii, while the plebeian cognomina included Balbus and Gallus.
Cossus itself seems to belong to a class of surnames derived from objects or animals, referring to the larva of certain beetles that burrow under the bark of trees.
An alternative explanation is that the name is a diminutive of lens, a lentil, and so belongs to the same class of surnames as Cicero, a chickpea, and Caepio, an onion.
According to Livy, early in the Second Samnite War, Lucius Cornelius Lentulus described his father as the only man who, during the Gallic sack of Rome in 390 BC, had opposed paying a ransom to ensure the departure of the Gauls from the city.
The Lentuli used a number of additional surnames, including Caudinus, apparently referring to the Battle of the Caudine Forks, crus, a leg, or the shin, Gaetulicus, bestowed upon the conqueror of the Gaetuli, Lupus, a wolf, Niger, black, Spinther, a bracelet, and Sura, the calf.
[7] Plutarch, who erroneously believed that the dictator Sulla was the first to bear the name, thought it must have referred to a blotchy, reddish complexion, while Macrobius derives it from Sibylla, an etymology that is rejected by Quintilian.
[20][21] The Cornelii Mammulae held several praetorships, beginning at the time of the Second Punic War, but they never attained the consulship, and disappeared after about fifty years.
[23] The Cornelii Cinnae were the last patrician family to emerge in the late second century BC; they retained prominence until the early decades of the Empire.
[24] Balbus, which like Blasio signifies a stammerer,[7] was not originally a surname of the Cornelia gens, but was adopted by a native of Gades, who was granted Roman citizenship by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, as a reward for military service during the War against Sertorius.
