Baebia (gens)

The gens Baebia was a plebeian family in ancient Rome. The first member of the gens who obtained the consulship was Gnaeus Baebius Tamphilus, in 182 BC. During the later Republic, the Baebii were frequently connected with the patrician family of the Aemilii.^[1][2]

Praenomina

The Baebii used the praenomina Quintus, Gnaeus, Marcus, Lucius, Gaius, and Aulus.^[1]

Branches and cognomina

The cognomina of the Baebii are Dives, Herennius, Sulca, and Tamphilus. The last is the only surname which appears on coins, where it is written Tampilus. All of the consuls and most of the praetors of this gens during the Republic belonged to this branch of the family.^[1][3]

Members

This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.

Baebii Tamphili

• Quintus Baebius Tamphilus, envoy sent to Hannibal at Saguntum in 219 BC, and then to Carthage.^[4][5]
• Gnaeus Baebius Q. f. Cn. n. Tamphilus, consul in 182 BC.
• Marcus Baebius Q. f. Cn. n. Tamphilus, consul in 181 BC.
• Gnaeus Baebius (Cn. f. Q. n.) Tamphilus, praetor urbanus in 168 BC, and in the following year one of five legates sent into Illyricum.^[6]
• Marcus Baebius Q. f. Tamphilus, triumvir monetalis in 137 BC.
• (Marcus) Baebius (Tamphilus), tribune of the plebs in 103 BC. Attempted to veto the agrarian law of his colleague, Saturninus, who had proposed that veterans should be granted parcels of land in the province of Africa; Baebius was stoned and forced to flee. Possibly the same Marcus Baebius who was put to death by Marius in 87 BC.^{[7][8][9][10]}
• Gaius Baebius Tamphilus, appears on a coin of uncertain date.^[1]

Other Baebii of the Republic

• Quintus Baebius Herennius, tribune of the plebs in 217 BC. He was a relative by marriage of Gaius Terentius Varro, and actively supported his candidacy for the consulship against the senatorial elite (patres) who objected to Varro's humble origins. According to Livius, Baebius criticized the emergence of a new elite forged from the patricians and plebeian nobiles, altering the traditional conflict of the orders.^{[11][12][13][14]}
• Lucius Baebius, one of the ambassadors sent by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus to Carthage in 202 BC. He was afterwards left by Scipio in command of the camp.^[15][16][17]
• Quintus Baebius, tribune of the plebs in 200 BC, opposed a motion to declare war on Philip of Macedon, and accused the Senate of warmongering; perhaps the eldest brother of the consular Baebii.^[7][18]
• Lucius Baebius Dives, praetor in 189 BC, received Hispania Ulterior as his province, but was slain by the Ligures on his way.^[19]
• Marcus Baebius, one of the three commissioners sent into Macedonia in 186 BC, to investigate the charges brought by the Maronitae and others against Philip.^[20]
• Quintus Baebius Sulca, one of the ambassadors sent to Ptolemaeus Philometor of Egypt in 173 BC.^[21][22]
• Lucius Baebius, one of three commissioners sent into Macedonia in 168 BC, to inspect the state of affairs there, before Lucius Aemilius Paullus invaded the country.^[23]
• Aulus Baebius, a prefect under the command of Lucius Aemilius Paullus in 167 BC. He was left in command of a garrison at Demetrias, and became involved in the internal political struggles of the Aetolians. He used Roman soldiers to surround a meeting of the Aetolian Senate, and allowed Aetolian soldiers to massacre five hundred and fifty attendees. Proscriptions and exiles followed. Paullus may have been complicit, for he received complaints circumspectly, took no action against the Aetolian leaders, and censured Baebius only for allowing Roman soldiers to take part. Baebius was afterwards condemned at Rome.^[7][24][25]
• Gaius Baebius, tribune of the plebs in 111 BC, bribed by Jugurtha to quash the investigation of Gaius Memmius.^[26][27]
• Gaius Baebius, appointed by Lucius Julius Caesar in 89 BC. as his successor in the command in the Social War.^[28]
• Marcus Baebius, put to death by Marius and Cinna when they entered Rome in 87 BC. Instead of being killed by any weapon, Baebius was literally torn to pieces by the hands of his enemies.^[29][30]
• Marcus Baebius, a brave man, slain by order of Lucius Calpurnius Piso in Macedonia, in 57 BC.^[31][32]
• Aulus Baebius, an eques of Asta, in Hispania, deserted the Pompeian party in the Spanish War, and went over to Caesar, in 45 BC.^[33]
• Baebius, a senator, who served under Publius Vatinius in Illyria. On the murder of Caesar, in 44 BC, the Illyrians rose against Vatinius, and cut off Baebius and five cohorts which he commanded.^[34]
• Gaius Baebius, military tribune in 31 BC.

Baebii under the Empire

Numerous Baebii are known from the Imperial era, particularly from inscriptions. Baebii with the praenomen Lucius are found concentrated around Saguntum in Hispania.^[35]

• Lucius Baebius Avitus, enrolled in the senate by Vespasian, and procurator of Lusitania.^[36]
• Lucius Baebius Honoratus, proconsul of Macedonia circa AD 79-84.^[37]
• Baebius Macer, consul suffectus in AD 101, and praefectus urbi in 117.^[38][39]
• Baebius Marcellinus, aedile in 203 AD, was unjustly and for a ridiculous reason condemned to death.^[40]
• Baebius Macrinus, a rhetorician, mentioned along with Julius Frontinus and Julius Granianus, as one of the teachers of the emperor Alexander Severus.^[41]
• Lucius Baebius Aurelius Juncinus, prefect of Egypt from AD 213 to 215.^[42]
• Baebius Macer, praefectus praetorio in the reign of Valerian.^[43]
• Lucius Baebius Cassianus, of the tribus Voltinia in southern Gaul.^[44][45]

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See also

• List of Roman gentes

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "^{article name needed}". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.