Serranus
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
- a surname (agnomen) of C. Atilius Regulus, who was summoned from the plough to the consulship, Plin. 18, 3, 4, § 20; Val. Max. 4, 4, 5; Verg. A. 6, 844; Claud. in Ruf. 1, 202; id. IV. Cons. Hon. 414.—Of other Atilii, Cic. Sest. 33, 72; id. Planc. 5, 12; id. Q. Fr. 3, 8, 5 al.
was originally an agnomen of C. Atilius Regulus, consul B. C. 257, but afterwards became the name of a distinct family of the Atilia gens. The origin of the name is uncertain. Most of the ancient writers derive it from serere, and relate that Regulus received the surname of Serranus, because he was engaged in sowing when the news was brought him of his elevation to the consulship (" Serentem invenerunt dati honores Serranum, unde cognomen," Plin. Nat. 18.3. s. 4 ; "te sulco, Serrane, serentem," Verg. A. 6.845 ; Cic. pro Sex. Rosc. 18 ; V. Max. 4.4.5.) It appears, however, from coins, that Saranus is the proper form of the name, and Perizonius (Animadv. Hist. 100.1) thinks that it is derived front Saranum, a town of Umbria.
1. C. Atilius Regulus Serranus, consul B. C. 257. [Regulus, No. 4.]
2. C. Atilius Serranus, probably son of the preceding, was praetor B. C. 218, the first year of the second Punic War, and was sent into northern Italy, to strengthen the army of the other practor, L. Manlius, who was attacked by the Boii. At a later period of the year, he and his colleague resigned their command to the consul P. Scipio, who returned from the Rhone to oppose Hannibal in Italy. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the consulship for B. C. 216. (Liv. 21.26, 39, 62 Appian, Annib. 5 ; Plb. 3.40; Liv. 22.35.)
3. C. Atilius Serranus, probably the eldest son of No. 2, curule aedile B. C. 193, with L. Scribonius Libo. They were the first aediles who exhibited the Megalesia as ludi scenici; and it was in their aedileship that the senators had seats assigned them in the theatre, distinct from the rest of the people. He did not obtain the praetorship till B. C. 185. (Liv. 34.54; V. Max. 2.4.3; Ascon. in Tog. Cand. p. 69, ed. Orelli; Liv. 39.23.)
4. A. Atilius Serranus, probably the second son of No. 2, was praetor B. C. 192, and obtained, as his province, Macedonia and the command of the fleet, under the pretext of carrying on hostilities against the Lacedaemonian tyrant Nabis, but in reality that he might be ready to act in the threatening war against Antiochus the Great, king of Syria. In the following year he retained the command of the fleet till the arrival of his successor, C. Livius Salinator; and as the war had been already declared against Antiochus, he captured in the Aegean a large fleet of transports carrying provisions to the king, and brought the ships into the Peiraeeus. He was praetor a second time in B. C. 173, and obtained the jurisdictio urbana. He was ordered in the same year to renew with Antiochus Epiphanes the treaty which had been concluded with his father. In B. C. 171 he was sent, with Q. Marcius Philippus and others, as ambassador into Greece, to counteract the designs and influence of Perseus. An account of this embassy, and of the way in which he and Philippus deceived the Macedonian monarch, is given in the life of Philippus [Vol. III. p. 286a.]. In the following year, B. C. 170, he was consul with A. Hostilius Mancinus, and obtained Italy as his province, while his colleague had the conduct of the war against Perseus. (Liv. 35.10, 20, 22, 36.20; Appian, Syr. 22 ; Liv. 41.28, 42.1, 6, 37, 38, 44, 47; Plb. 27.2; Liv. 43.9.)
5. M. Atilus Serranus, probably the third son of No. 2, was one of the triumvirs appointed in B. C. 190, for settling new colonists at Placentia and Cremona. He is probably the same as the M. Atilius who was praetor in B. C. 174, and obtained the province of Sardinia. (Liv. 37.46, 41.21.)
6. M. Atilius Serranus, praetor B. C. 152, in Further Spain, defeated the Lusitani, and took their principal city, Oxthracae. (Appian, Hisp. 58.)
7. Sex. Atilius Serranus, consul B. C. 136, with P. Furius Philus. (Obsequ. 84; Cic. de Off. 3.30, ad Att. 12.5.)
8. C. Atilius Serranus, eonsul B. C. 106 with Q. Servilius Caepio, the year in which Cicero and Pompey were born. Although a "stultissimus homo," according to Cicero, he was elected in preference to Q. Catulus (Obsequ. 101; Gel. 15.28 ; Veil. Pat. 2.53; Cic. pro Planc. 5). He was one of the senators who took up arms against Saturninus in B. C. 100. (Cic. pro C. Rabir. 7.)
9. Atilius Serranus, one of the distinguished men slain by order of Marius and Cinna, when they entered Rome at the close of B. C. 87. (Appian, App. BC 1.72.)
10. SEX. ATILIUS Serranus Gavianus, originally belonged to the Gavia gens, but was adopted by one of the Atilii. He was quaestor in B. C. 63 in the consulship of Cicero, who treated him with distinguished favour; but in his tribunate of the plebs, B. C. 57, he notwithstanding allowed himself to be purchased by Cicero's enemies in order to prevent his recal from banishment, and in conjunction with his colleague, Q. Numerius Rufus, offered the most vigorous resistance to Cicero's friends. When the consul Lentulus proposed in the senate on the 1st of January the recal of Cicero, Serranus begged that the question might be adjourned, in order that he might have a night to consider it : this time he employed in securing for himself increase of the pay which he had already received. After Cicero's return to Rome, Serranus put his veto upon the decree of the senate restoring to Cicero the site on which his house had stood, but he found it advisable to withdraw his opposition. (Cic. pro Sest. 33, 34, 39, 43, post lied. ad Quir. 5, ad Att. 4.2 § 4, de Harusp. Resp. 15 ; Ascon. in Pison. p. 11, ed. Orelli.)
11. (Attilius?) Serranus Domesticus, the funeral of whose son B. C. 54, is spoken of by Cicero (ad Q. Fr. 3.8.5.)
It is uncertain to which member of the family the annexed coin refers. It bears on the obverse the head of Pallas, with Saran., and on the reverse the Dioscuri, with M. ATIL., and below Roma. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 146.)
a Roman poet mentioned by Juvenal (7.80), to whom Sarpe assigns the Eclogues which have come down to us under the tame of Calpurnius Siculus [Calpurnius]. (Sarpe, Quaest. Philol. Rostoch, 1819.)