Flavia gens

The gens became illustrious during the first century AD, when the family of the Flavii Sabini claimed the imperial dignity.

It was a common practice for freedmen to assume the nomina of their patrons, and so countless persons who obtained the Roman franchise under the Flavian emperors adopted the name Flavius, which was then handed down to their descendants.

[1][2] The vast majority of persons named Flavius during the later Empire could not have been descended from the Flavia gens; and indeed, the distinction between nomina and cognomina was all but lost, so that in many cases one cannot even determine with certainty whether it is a nomen or a cognomen.

[1] The nomen Flavius is of Latin origin, and is derived from the surname Flavus, used by a number of gentes, and meaning "golden" or "golden-brown".

[4][5] During the later period of the Empire, the name Flavius frequently descended from one emperor to another, beginning with Constantius Chlorus, the father of Constantine the Great.

Initially, people sometimes used the name Flavius alongside another nomen that they were entitled to (e.g. Julius, Aelius), but these other nomina died out over the fifth century.

[13] In modern use, Flavius is a personal name, and widely used in romance languages, including Italian and Spanish Flavio (fem.

They were descended from Titus Flavius Petro, a soldier from Reate who fought under Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus.

However, within less than thirty years, the family was largely destroyed through the workings of Vespasian's son, the emperor Domitian.

A family of the Flavii bearing the surname Valens lived at Hatria, and from there migrated to Rome in imperial times, where two of them served as prefects of different cohorts.