Genealogies of Roman Clans and Families

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ANTONIA GENS The Antonian Clan.

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That the Antonia clan traces the antiquity of its lineage to Anton, son of Hercules, is attested by Plutarch in his Life of Antony. Augustus confirms this in Appian, in his third book On the Civil Wars, with these words: "Caesar would have adopted you, Antony, had he known you would willingly cross over from the lineage of the Heraclidae to the Aeneadae the descendants of Aeneas." This is the second patrician clan of the Aborigines, and I find no other among the ancients. There are two families of this clan. One is that of the Merendae; the other, as far as I know, lacks a surname, which is something we can observe in other families as well. For although Plutarch, Velleius, and others write that M. Antonius, the father of the Triumvir, was called Creticus, it is sufficiently certain that this surname was neither received nor used by his descendants. This latter family of the Antonia clan is plebeian. For Plutarch writes that M. Antonius held the Tribunate of the plebs, and Paedianus calls C. Antonius, Cicero's colleague in the Consulship, a noble plebeian in his commentary Against Catiline. We have joined these families because they have one and the same origin and flowed, as it were, from the same source. For it could easily have happened that this family passed over to the plebeians, as did the Octavii and many others.