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In ancient Rome, a gens ( or ), plural gentes, was a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a ''stirps'' (plural ''stirpes''). The ''gens'' was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the period of the Roman Republic. Much of an individual's social standing depended on the gens to which he belonged. Certain gentes were considered patrician, others plebeian, while some had both patrician and plebeian branches. The importance of membership in a gens declined considerably in imperial times.〔''Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities'', Second Edition, Harry Thurston Peck, Editor (1897)〕〔''Oxford Classical Dictionary'', 2nd Ed. (1970)〕 ==Origin of the ''gens''== The word ''gens'' is sometimes translated as "race" or "nation", meaning a people descended from a common ancestor (rather than sharing a common physical trait). It can also be translated as "clan" or "tribe", although the word ''tribus'' has a separate and distinct meaning in Roman culture. A gens could be as small as a single family, or could include hundreds of individuals. According to tradition, in 479 BC the Fabii alone were able to field a militia consisting of three hundred and six men of fighting age. The concept of the gens was not uniquely Roman, but was shared with communities throughout Italy, including those who spoke Italic languages such as Latin, Oscan, and Umbrian, as well as the Etruscans. All of these peoples were eventually absorbed into the sphere of Roman culture.〔〔〔Titus Livius, ''Ab Urbe Condita'', Book II〕〔''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', William Smith, Editor〕 The oldest gentes were said to have originated before the foundation of Rome (traditionally 753 BC), and claimed descent from mythological personages as far back as the time of the Trojan War (traditionally ended 1184 BC〔). However, the establishment of the gens cannot long predate the adoption of hereditary surnames. The ''nomen gentilicium'', or "gentile name", was its distinguishing feature, for a Roman citizen's nomen indicated his membership in a gens.〔〔〔Eratosthenes, ''Chronographia'', cited in Michael Wood, ''In Search of the Trojan War'' (1985)〕〔Titus Livius, ''Ab Urbe Condita'', Book I〕 The nomen could be derived from any number of things, including, but not limited to, the name of an ancestor; a person's occupation; physical appearance, behavior, or characteristics; or town of origin. Because some of these things were fairly common, it was possible for unrelated families to bear the same nomen, and over time to become confused. Persons could be adopted into a gens and acquire its nomen. A ''libertus'', or "freedman", usually assumed the nomen (and sometimes also the praenomen) of the person who had manumitted him, and a naturalized citizen usually took the name of the patron who granted his citizenship. Freedmen and newly enfranchised citizens were not technically part of the gentes whose names they shared, but within a few generations it often became impossible to distinguish their descendants from the original members. In practice this meant that a gens could acquire new members and even new branches, either by design or by accident.〔〔〔''Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft'', August Pauly and Georg Wissowa, Editors〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「gens」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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