Egnatius
- a Roman proper name.
- 1 L. Egn. Rufus, friend of Cicero, Cic. Fam. 13, 43 sq.; id. Att. 7, 18, 4 al.—
- 2 M. Egn. Rufus, the name of an edile, 733 A. U. C., who set on foot a conspiracy against Augustus, Suet. Aug. 19; Vell. 2, 91 sq.; Sen. Clem. 1, 9; id. Brev. Vit. 5; Tac. A. 1, 10.
- —Hence, Egnātĭānus, a, um, adj., of Egnatius: scelus, Vell. 2, 93. —
- 3 Egnatia Maximilla, Tac. A. 15, 71.
1. Gellius Egnatius, was leader of the Samnites in the third great Samnite war, which broke out B. C. 298. By the end of the second campaign, the Samnites appeared entirely subdued; but in the following year Gellius Egnatius marched into Etruria, notwithstanding the presence of the Romans in Samnium, and roused the Etruscans to a close co-operation against Rome. This had the effect of withdrawing the Roman troops for a time from Samnium; but the forces of the confederates were defeated by the combined armies of the consuls L. Volumnius and Appius Claudius. In the fourth campaign (B. C. 295) Egnatius induced the Gauls and Umbrians to join the confederacy; but in consequence of the withdrawal of the Etruscans and Umbrians, the Gauls and Samnites fell back beyond the Apennines, and were met by the Romans near the town of Sentinum. A decisive battle, signalized by the heroic devotion of P. Decius, ensued, in which the confederate army was defeated, and Egnatius slain. (Liv. 10.18_29.)
2. Marius Egnatius, one of the principal leaders of the Italian allies in the social or Marsian war, which broke out B. C. 90. He was doubtless one of those twelve commanders, who were to be chosen year by year by the allies, to serve under two consuls. (Diod. Fragm. vol. x. p. 186, ed. Bip.) In Livy he is called the leader of the Samnites. The first of his exploits which we have mentioned is the capture of Venafrum, of which he made himself master through treachery, and where he destroyed two cohorts. Not long after, near Teanum, in a defile of Mons Massicus, he fell unexpectedly on the army of the consul L. Caesar, which he put to flight. The Romans fled to Teanum, but lost a great number of men in crossing the Savo, over which there was but a single bridge. In the following year Egnatius was killed in battle with the Romans under the praetors C. Cosconius and Lucceius. (Liv. Epit. lxxv.; Appian, App. BC 1.40, 41, 45.)
It has been ingeniously conjectured (by Prosper Merimée, in his Essai sur la Guerre Sociale) that the M. Marius of Sidicinum mentioned by A. Gellius as being suae civitatis nobilissimus homo, and who was treated with such gross indignity by one of the consuls, probably of the year B. C. 123, was either the father or a near relative of Marius Egnatius.
3. Cn. Egnatius, a man of somewhat disreputable character, was admitted into the Roman senate, but was subsequently expelled by the censors. (Cic. Clu. 48.)
4. Egnatius, a son of the former, was, like his father, a member of the senate, and retained that dignity when his father's name was struck off the rolls. He was disinherited by his father. (Cic. Clu. 48.)
5. Egnatius, probably a son of No. 4, accompanied Crassus on his expedition against the Parthians, and after the great defeat which Crassus sustained (B. C. 53), escaped from the scene of the disaster with 300 horsemen. (Plut. Crassus, 27.) Appian (App. BC 4.21) mentions two Egnatii, father and son, who were included in the proscription of the year B. C. 43, and were slain by a single blow, while locked in each other's arms. They were perhaps the same with the two last.
6. Egnatius Sidicinus, mentioned by Cicero as having had some money transactions with him. (Ad Alt. 6.1.23.) [Egnatia Gens.]
7. Egnatius, a poet who wrote before Virgil. Macrobius (Macr. 6.5) quotes some lines front his poem De Rerum Natura. [C.P.M]