Earth and Space News: Villa of Quintilii Owners Were Born Near Troy and Had Trojan Lineage

Summary: Second century Rome's Villa of the Quintilii owners were born near Troy and had a Trojan lineage linked with Romulus, Rome's founder and first king.

The Quintilii brothers, owners of Rome's impressive second century CE Villa of the Quintilii residential complex, traced their Trojan lineage to Trojan War hero Prince Aeneas, son of Trojan Prince Anchises and goddess Venus; "Venus and Anchises," ca. 1889-1890 oil on canvas by British artist Sir William Blake Richmond (Nov. 29, 1842-Feb. 11, 1921), inspired by verse from "Epipsychidion" by Percy Bysshe Shelley (Aug. 4, 1792-July 8, 1822); National Museums Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool UK: Google Arts and Culture, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Second century CE Rome's Villa of the Quintilii owners were born near Troy and had a Trojan lineage associated anciently with Romulus, Rome's legendary founder and first king.

Brothers Sextus Quintilius Condianus and Sextus Quintilius Maximus were born in Alexandria Troas. The Roman colony in the historical region of northwestern Anatolia was recognized in 44 BCE during the dictatorship (extraordinary magistracy) of Roman general and statesman Gaius Julius Caesar (July 12 or 13, 100-March 15, 44 BCE). The colony was reestablished in 12 BCE, during the reign (Jan. 16, 27 BCE-Aug. 19, 14 CE) of Augustus (Gaius Octavius "Octavian"; Sep. 23, 63 BCE-Aug. 19, 14 CE), first Roman emperor, according to American New Testament theologian Robert Jewett (born Dec. 31, 1933) in "The Troas Project" (CSBS Seminar, May 2005, page 2), citing German historian of classical antiquity Elmar Schwertheim (born July 9, 1943) in “Zur Gründung der römischen Kolonie in Alexandria Troas" (Die Troas: Neue Forschungen III, 1999, pages 95-101).

Alexandria Troas retained the name of the Hellenistic city on which the colony was sited. Upon becoming King of Asia Minor in 306 BCE, Antigonus I Monophthalmus (Greek: Ἀντίγονος Μονόφθαλμος, Antigonos Monophthalmos, 'the One-Eyed'; 382-301 BCE) had renamed the ancient port from Sigeia (Ancient Greek: Σιγία) to Antigonia Troas. Upon becoming King of Asia Minor in 301 BCE, Lysimachus (Greek: Λυσίμαχος, Lysimachos; ca. 361-281 BCE), former somatophylax (Ancient Greek: σωματοφύλαξ, somatophylax; plural: Σωματοφύλακες, somatophylakes; high-ranking military bodyguard drawn from nobility) of Alexander III of Macedon "Alexander the Great" (July 20/21, 356-June 10/11, 323 BCE), changed the city's name to Alexandria Troas.

The name of Alexandria Troas situates the city in the Troad ("land of Troy"), known modernly as Biga Peninsula (Turkish: Biga Yarımadası). The city's ruins lie south of Troya Tarihi Milli Parkı (Troy National Park), which encompasses Troy and the area surrounding the nine-layered archaeological site. Alexandria Troas nearly marks the midpoint of the Troad's west coast, according to the entry (page 575) by British archaeologist and scholar David George Hogarth "D.G.H." (May 23, 1862-Nov. 6, 1927) in the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Brothers Sextus Quintilius Condianus and Sextus Quintilius Maximus belonged to the wealthy Roman colonial elite who comprised "Roman enclaves in a Greek environment" (page 426), according to Annika B. Kuhn, University of Oxford Ph.D. in Ancient History, in "Herodes Atticus and the Quintilii of Alexandria Troas," published in the 2012 issue (band 42) of Chiron. The distinguished governmental careers forged by the brothers included consulships in 151 CE and reflected the active administrative involvement of their father and grandfather, same-named as Sextus Quin(c)tilius Valerius Maximus, in the Roman Empire.

The brothers were born into the patrician gens Quintilia, also spelled as Quinctilia. Gens membership in the classical Roman social structure expressed shared ancestry and nomen gentilicium (Latin: nomen, “name” + gentilicium, “belonging to a particular Roman gens”).

The lineage of the patrician gens Quintilia reached back to association with Romulus, Rome's legendary founder and first king. Romulus claimed descent, through his mother, from Trojan Prince Aeneas (Ancient Greek: Αἰνείας, Aineias). Rhea Silvia's paternal grandfather, King Procas (8th to 9th centuries BCE) of central Italy's Alba Longa, traced back to Prince Aeneas and his third wife, Lavinia, only child of King Latinus and Queen Amata of central west Italy's Latium, as first ancestors. King Latinus was the son of Odysseus (Ancient Greek: Ὀδυσσεύς, Odysseus) and enchantress and minor goddess Circe (Ancient Greek: Κίρκη, Kirke).

English lexicographer Sir William Smith (May 20, 1813-Oct. 7, 1893) noted the gens Quintilia's association with King Romulus in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, first published in 1849. "QUINTI'LIA or QUINCTI'LIA GENS, patrician. This name occurs in the earliest legends of Roman history, for the followers of Romulus among the shepherds are said to have been called Quintilii, just as those of his brother Remus were named Fabii. The Luperci, who were among the most ancient priests of Rome, were divided into two classes, one called Quintilii or Quintiliani, and the other Fabii or Fabiani. (Festus, s.vv. Quinctiliani Luperci, and Fabiani; Ovid. Fast. ii. 378). Hence it has been conjectured with much probability that this priesthood was originally confined to these gentes. (Comp. Dict. of Ant. s.v. Luperci.) . . . ." (1859, vol. III, page 634).

The gens Iulia, lineage of Roman general and statesman Gaius Julius Caesar (July 12 or 13, 100-March 15, 44 BCE), and gens Quintilii both genealogized Aeneas as their mythic progenitor. Gens Iulia associated with Aeneas and his first wife, Creusa (Ancient Greek: Κρέουσα, Kreousa, "princess"), daughter of Trojan King Priam (Ancient Greek: Πρίαμος, Priamos) and Queen Hecuba (Ancient Greek: Ἑκάβη, Hekabe). First ancestor Aeneas connected both gentes with goddess Venus (Ancient Greek: Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodite) and Trojan Prince Anchises (Ancient Greek: Ἀγχίσης, Ankhises).

The Quintilii brothers, Sextus Quintilius Condianus and Sextus Quintilius Maximus, were born, as third-generation Roman colonial settlers, in Alexandria Troas, an ancient Greek city sited "about four miles from ancient Troy," according to English writer and chancery court counsel Thomas Lewin (April 19, 1805-Jan. 5, 1877); "Plan of the remains of Alexandria Troas," map by French diplomat and writer Comte Marie Gabriel August Florens de Choiseul-Gouffier (Sep. 27, 1752-June 20, 1817) in T. Lewin, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, vol. I (1875), figure 89, page 193: Not in copyright, via Internet Archive

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

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Smith, William, ed. "QUINTI'LIA or QUINCTI'LIA GENS, patrician. This name occurs in the earliest legends of Roman history, for the followers of Romulus among the shepherds are said to have been called Quintilii, just as those of his brother Remus were named Fabii. The Luperci, who were among the most ancient priests of Rome, were divided into two classes, one called Quintilii or Quintiliani, and the other Fabii or Fabiani. (Festus, s.vv. Quinctiliani Luperci, and Fabiani; Ovid. Fast. ii. 378). Hence it has been conjectured with much probability that this priesthood was originally confined to these gentes. (Comp. Dict. of Ant. s.v. Luperci.) But although the gens was so ancient, it never attained any historical importance and its name is best known from the unfortunate Quintilius Varus, who was destroyed with his whole army by the Germans in the reign of Augustus. The Quintilii obtained only one consulship and one dictatorship during the whole of the republican period, the former in B.C. 453, and the latter in B.C. 331. During the republic VARUS is the only family-name that occurs in the gens; but in the times of the empire we find one or two other cognomens, which are given below." Page 634. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. In three volumes. Vol. III. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1859.
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Wright, [Emily] Wilmer Cave [France]. ". . . . And when the Quintilii during their proconsulship of Greece censured him for putting up the statues of these youths on the ground that they were an extravagance, he retorted: 'What business is it of yours if I amuse myself with my poor marbles?' "His quarrel with the Quintilii [fn1] began, as most people assert, over the Pythian festival, when they held different views about the musical competition; but some say that it began with the jests that Herodes made to Marcus at their expense. For when he saw that, though they were Trojans, the Emperor thought them worthy of the highest honours, he said: 'I blame Homer's Zeus also, for loving the Trojans.' But the following reason is nearer the truth. When these two men were both governing Greece, the Athenians invited them to a meeting of the assembly, and made speeches to the effect that they were oppressed by a tyrant, meaning Herodes; and finally begged that what they had said might be forwarded to the Emperor's ears. And when the Quintilii felt pity for the people and without delay reported what they had heard, Herodes asserted that they were plotting against him, for they were inciting the Athenians to attack him. Certainly, after that meeting of the assembly there sprang into activity men like Demostratus, Praxagoras and Mamertinus, and many others whose public policy was opposed to Herodes. . . ." Pages 166-169. Philostratus and Eunapius: The Lives of the Sophists, Book II.1.557-559, pages 162-169. The Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, MCMXXII [1922].
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Thursday, April 20, 2023

Villa of Quintilii Owners Were Born Near Troy and Had Trojan Lineage

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