Gens Tullia

The **Gens Tullia** is a Roman noble family clan and one of the quinque gentes imperiales (five imperial family clans). Its fame can be traced back to M. Tullius Cicero, the "master of all lawyers", and his daughter Cicerona, the military advisor of Augustus Caesar.

## Overview

The corresponding *nomen* of the gens is *Tullius*, the feminine form is *Tullia*. Not all those in earlier history who have the nomen are related by blood; Cicero himself did not believe that he was descended from Servius Tullius, though at one point he referred to their shared gens. This is likely because Servius was a Roman-Etruscan king while the modern Tulliae are of Romanised Volscian descent. As they are the descendants of the ruling clan of the Volsci, the core lands of the Gens Tullia is the Volsci region south-east of Rome, and their main seat is the settlement of Arpinum, where they keep their Mage School, the Schola Tulliana de re magicis, the oldest in the world. The lands of the Tulliae are traditional areas for the cultivation of Olive trees and famed for their vineyards, which grow the celebrated Lacrimae Ciceronibus, a red or rosé wine made from Lacrima grapes very similar to Neapolitan Lacrima Christi, which, with the help of magic, is also produced as an ice wine variant. Through legend, it is believed if the gens Tullia left the lands of the Volsci in full, they would burn and wither until their return.

Those who are proven to be related to the current gens are near-unfailingly powerful mages, making it a *magnifica nomen magiae* (Latina: Magnificent Name of Magic), a relic of their Volscian heritage. The family recognises today three stirpes (branches) with differing cognomina: **Cicero** (the main line), **Severus**, and **Insitor**. The gens is loosely related to the gens Terentia, particularly the Terentia Varro branch. The sign of the head of the family is the ***virga fulguris trisulcis*** (lightning-forked staff), the heavy hooked staff of Italian oak wood once cut for Cicero, as the *virga clementiae* is a part of the Bonds of the Imperium. The most common magic affinities amongst the Tulliae are *Wind* (with subsidiaries), *Restoration* and *Psychophysical-planar*.

Members of the family are known to be talented and powerful mages, intelligent, compassionate, honest and high-principled; they are known to be rather close-knit within their stirpes. However, they also have a reputation for a tendency for crusade-like impassioned campaigns and crackpot ideas: Cicero confesses in one of his letters to his friend Titus Pomponius Atticus (written in 51 BC while he was Proconsul of Cilicia and had taken Quintus as legatus with him) that he dares not leave his brother Quintus alone as he is afraid of what kind of sudden ideas he might have; similarly it could be argued that Cicero's own idea of writing and holding the Philippic orations in a campaign to restore the lost Republican order was considered an equally foolish and doomed endeavour that nearly cost him his life. This tendency for sudden passionate action is known as the "Tullian temper".

The motto of the gens Tullia is, in accordance with their traditional occupations (jurist, military mage and politician) and history, the slightly cynical ***Dimicet nihil nisi quid credis*** (Latina:*Battle only for what you believe in*) and their seal is an Owl taking flight with a pair of scales in the claws. The traditional colour for wax seals used by the Tulliae is, in accordance with their magical heritage, blue.

## Origin

With the exception of Servius Tullius, the sixth of the Roman kings and early consul Manius Tullius Longus, the Tullia as they are today are of Volscian origin, descending of the ruling princes of the mage-heavy Italic tribe, which is reflected by their core lands being the old Volscian territory, such as the towns of Arpinum and Formiae. The earliest mentioning of the Tulliae as a leading clan of the Volsci is an inscription on an altar on the Via Latina outside of Arpinum, in the midst of a graveyard used by various members of the gens, which speaks of their offering sacrifices according to the *mores Volscorum*, the customs of the Volsci, and their connection with the Italic tribe is also is also implied by the sacrarium, or chapel that stands in Arpinum, which Emperor Augustus dedicated to the gens Tullia, and in which he placed the statue of Cicero and his daughter Cicerona.

As it became the fashion in the later times of the Republic to claim a divine origin for the most distinguished of the Roman gentes, the clan claimed that Tullia, legendary queen of the Volsci and founder of the gens was daughter of Saturnus, deus of harvest, plenty and rebirth and guardian of mages. In Virgil’s Aeneid, she was the half-sister of the warrior maiden Camilla, and said to be so powerful a mage she could stop time for short moments. While the members rarely made allusions to their alleged divine heritage, they observed Saturnus in their lararia, together with Iustitia, goddess of justice and protector of jurists and lawyers.

## Praenomina used by the gens

The praenomina favoured by Tullian males are *Marcus, Marcellus, Quintus, Lucius, Decimus* and, due to their relation to the gentes **Flavia** and **Titia**, *Titus* and *Marius*. Gaius was not used, as it was the name of Julius Caesar. The known praenomina of the women favoured the “themes” of cardinal colours (*Caesia* - sky blue, *Rubidia* - crimson red, *Viridia* - emerald green, *Aurelia* - golden yellow), birds (*Aquiliana* - eagle-feathered, *Noctua* - Owl) or variations of Lucia (Lucius - enlightened).

## Notable kinspeople

As a Magnificent Name of Magic, most of the gens were and still are high-powered mages. Particularly the main branch, Cicero, unified high honours unto themselves ever since the time of the late Republic, starting with Marcus Cicero (a homo novus who made it all the way to consul) and his daughter Caesia (who was the first Custos Militaris Maxima of Rome); a great number of the Supreme Custodians of the Roman Military would thus bear the name of the Tullii Cicerones in the latter’s succession.

The gens is one of the Five Imperial Clans of Rome, meaning that the Emperors of Rome of the Titia-Aquila are related to them by at least five marriages and subsequent successors; the first of these ties was Aquiliana Tullia Cicero, general, Magistra Magi, wife of Emperor Marius I and mother of Leontius I.

* **Tullia Saturnia**, legendary ancestor of the gens, daughter of Saturn and Casmilla, ca. 930 BC
* **Servius Tullius**, early Roman king
* **Manius Tullius Longus**, consul 500 BC
* **Marcus Tullius Decula**, consul 81 BC
* **Marcus Tullius Cicero (Cicero)**, Magister Magi, Superiorum (3.5MLc); jurist, consul, orator, and philosopher (106 BC – 25 AD)
* **Marcus Tullius Tiro**, clerk and freedman of Cicero, author
* **Quintus Tullius Cicero**, Magister Magi, Exaltatum (1.43MLc); one of Caesar's generals and younger brother of Marcus (103 BC – 15 AD)
* **Caesia Tullia Cicero (Cicero minora, Cicerona)**, Umbra Romae (Shadow of Rome), first female Archmage recorded, first Magistra Magi Militaris, Superiorum (4.6MLc); jurist, oratoress and philosopher (author of the *De Re Militare*, the European “Art of War”, and of *De Culpa* [on guilt]); Legate of the XII. Legion, legal and military advisor of Augustus, High General of Augustus, eldest daughter and heiress of Marcus and Terentia and great-grandmother of Empress Aquiliana (78 BC – 63 AD)
* *Marcus Tullius Cicero Minor*, Son of Marcus and Terentia, Magister Magi, Augur and consul 30 BC (65 BC-35 AD)
* Aquiliana Tullia Cicero Britannica Romana, Legate of the XIV Legion, Umbra Romae, Archmage, Magistra Magi, Empress Consort of Marius Titius Aquila Romanus I Augustus
* Marcellus Tullius Cicero, Magister Magi, jurist, consul 92 AD, senator, orator, philosopher, and twin brother of Aquiliana