The most illustrious of the gens was the orator Quintus Hortensius, a man of great learning, and a contemporary of Cicero.
[2] However, Ogilvie points to the town of Urbinum Hortense in Umbria and the cult of Jupiter Hortensis in Campania as evidence that the name could have arisen elsewhere in Italy.
From this it seems more likely that Cicero was referring to the distinguished record of the Hortensii in the service of the Roman state, rather than identifying the gens as patrician.
[4][1] Ogilvie doubts the existence of Quintus Hortensius, ostensibly tribune of the plebs in 422 BC, suggesting that this story was invented at the time of the marriage of Sempronia with Lucius Hortensius, the father of the famous orator, and concluding that the Hortensii probably arrived at Rome during the fourth century BC.
[3] All of the Hortensii at Rome mentioned in ancient sources bore the praenomina Quintus, Lucius, or Marcus, which were very common names at all periods of Roman history.