Preface of Baron Richard Streinnius of Austria,

ON THE LINEAGES OF THE ROMAN NATIONS AND

families.

A large decorative woodcut initial V featuring foliage and floral designs begins the first paragraph of the preface.

IT IS AN OLD OPINION, deeply ingrained in the minds of many, that the beginning and origin of the Roman Republic was a confluence and gathering of certain barbarian peoples. And so, in Trogus Pompeius Trogus, a Roman historian, Mithridates does not hesitate to call the Romans the slaves and menials of the Etruscans, their kings the shepherds of the Aborigines, their augurs the Sabines, and their exiles the Corinthians. Nevertheless, the ancient writers of Roman affairs—Catos, Pisones, Gellii, and the one who follows their footsteps most closely, Dionysius of Halicarnassus a Greek historian of Rome, an author who is a first-rate, reliable source—attempt to prove with many arguments that the Romans derive their origin from the Greeks. We have thought it right to explain their opinion briefly here, before we approach our families. We will also add a very brief explanation of the Roman nations and families; then we will show which are the Patrician and which the Plebeian clans, and which are called the Patrician families of the greater and which of the lesser clans.

In the beginning, therefore, the Aborigines (to trace the authority from the earliest times), led by Oenotrus, the son of Lycaon, king of Arcadia, left the Peloponnese and occupied Latium, a region which seemed to surpass all others both in the temperateness of its climate and in the fertility of its fields and the variety of its fruits. For such was the custom of the most ancient times, a practice accepted by the consent of all nations, that if a city were pressed by a multitude of the common people, or if fields were uncultivated due to sterility, or empty and deserted due to pestilence, whatever was vowed as sacred to the immortal gods from the people, from the swine, sheep, or goat flocks the following spring was called by antiquity the Ver sacrum Sacred Spring. This was then a kind of method for leading out colonies. They sent forth from their borders youth equipped with arms, with a favorable omen, to seek a region and homes for themselves, which they would hold in place of their fatherland, and in which they would establish a domicile for their fortunes. This matter brought about the migrations of many nations and the frequent exchange of places in ancient times. For by this same rationale, the Arcadians, who were later called Aborigines, placed the seat of all their things and fortunes in Latium, sixteen generations before the war was fought at Troy. Thus the Pelasgians from Thessaly, Evander from Arcadia, and Hercules from the Peloponnese migrated into Latium; the witness of which matter is Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the first book of his Roman Antiquities.

Afterward, when Troy had been razed and utterly destroyed by the Greeks, and Aeneas, a fugitive with a great band of clients, had crossed first into Libya, then soon into Italy, and had occupied the kingdom after King Latinus died, the empire was transferred to the Phrygians, excluding the race of the Aborigines. This was handed down to posterity, up to Romulus (whom the Romans call the author of the name and the founder of the city), who, after having wickedly killed his grandfather Aemilius and his brother Remus through the highest fraud, both founded the city on the Palatine and bound the Republic with a Senate, laws, and courts. This is the first, as I believe, and the most ancient origin of the Roman clans. For both the Arcadians (as is agreed among all) were the most ancient people of Italy, and the Phrygians were the remnants of the Trojan War; both migrated into the city with Romulus. Hence it happened that of the Roman clans, some are of the Aborigines, others are Trojan. The clans of the Aborigines are those that derive their origin from the first peoples of Italy, whom Dionysius testifies to have been Arcadians; of these, the Fabii, Antonii, Potitii, and Mamilii were famous and illustrious above others. The Trojan ones, however, are those who trace their origin to the Phrygians and the companions of Aeneas, such as the Iunii, Nautii, Aemilii, Sergii, and Caecilii.

Then, when the Sabines were admitted by Romulus to the partnership of the kingdom together with King Tatius, and when the victorious Romulus granted citizenship also to the defeated peoples, the city was increased by many and varied citizens. Tullus Hostilius, the third king of the Romans, arrived, who, after Alba was destroyed and razed, moved many families to Rome; Dionysius names the more illustrious of these: the Iulii, Servilii, Geganii, Metilii, Curiatii, and Quinctilii. After many kings of Italy were done away with, citizenship was given to the municipalities that had remained in the faith of the Roman people—the Fundani, Formiani, Acerrani, Tusculani, and Arpinates—and this lasted until the Social War, as Velleius Paterculus a Roman historian attests, when almost all of Italy received citizenship with the right to vote. From this, the monuments of the ancients testify that Coruncanii, Curii, Fabricii, Porcii, Pompeii, Marii, and Tullii attained the highest magistracies and most ample honors. Finally, the benefit of citizenship was transferred to foreign nations as well. For it is agreed that Cornelius Balbus the Spaniard, having been gifted with citizenship by Pompey, was made Consul; and we have received that P. Ventidius, captured in war by Pompey and led in a triumph, a man of praetorian and consular rank, was the first of all to triumph over the Parthians. Concerning which matter, in the eleventh book of Tacitus, where he treats of receiving the Aedui into citizenship, Claudius Caesar speaks thus:

"My ancestors," he says, "of whom the most ancient, Clausus, of Sabine origin, was admitted at the same time into Roman citizenship and into the families of the Patricians, urge me to manage the Republic with similar counsel, by transferring here whatever is excellent anywhere. For I am not ignorant that the Iulii were summoned from Alba, the Coruncanii from Camerium, the Porcii from Tusculum, and, not to examine ancient things, from Etruria, Lucania, and all of Italy into the Senate; finally, that it was extended to the Alps, so that not only individuals man by man, but lands and nations might coalesce into our name. Then there was solid peace at home, and we flourished against external enemies, when the Transpadani were received into citizenship, when, by the appearance of the legions defeated across the world, with the strongest of the provincials added, the weary empire was relieved. Are we sorry that the Balbi came across from Spain, and no less distinguished men from Gallia Narbonensis?"

So he spoke. Therefore, to bring the whole matter into a few words, we say that of the Roman clans, some are of the Aborigines, others Trojan. The former are the progeny of the Arcadians who first placed their seats in Latium; the latter of the Phrygians who migrated into Italy under the leadership of Aeneas. And indeed, all ancient authors hand down that these had a Greek origin. To this pertain the Alban and Latin [clans], whose origin is reported by the ancients as one and the same, which, when they were transferred into the city by the kings, then, after the kings were removed, obtained citizenship either by the authority of the Senate or by the law of the people. Let the foreign families be added (so that we might not omit anything that seems to pertain to this matter), which crept into the citizenship and the census of Roman citizens when the Republic was oppressed by the arms and tyranny of the Caesars, a matter which certainly did not afflict the splendor of the Roman clans so much as the name and dignity of the Roman Empire. Look around, and as far as you can, [view the] greatest kingdoms...