Sicinia gens

Members of this gens occur throughout the history of the Republic, but only one of them obtained the consulship, Titus Sicinius Sabinus in 487 BC.

Sabinus belongs to a common class of surnames derived from the names of peoples or localities, and suggests that the Sicinii may have been of Sabine origin.

[2] Although the earliest Sicinii occurring in history were plebeians, as were all of the later members of this gens, some scholars have concluded that Titus Sicinius Sabinus must have been a patrician, and the gens originally a patrician family, since the consulship was opened to the plebeians by the lex Licinia Sextia in 367 BC, a hundred and twenty years after Sabinus.

[3] The main praenomina of the Sicinii were Lucius, Gaius, Gnaeus, Titus, and Quintus, all of which were common throughout Roman history.

[1] Of those that do appear, Vellutus or Bellutus seems to be derived from vellus, wool, and must have designated someone with conspicuously abundant or wooly hair.