Aemilia gens
The gens Aemilia, originally written Aimilia, was one of the greatest patrician families at ancient Rome. The gens was of great antiquity, and claimed descent from Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome. Its members held the highest offices of the state, from the early decades of the Republic to imperial times. The Aemilii were almost certainly one of the "gentes maiores", the most important of the patrician families. Their name was associated with three major roads (the "Via Aemilia", the "Via Aemilia Scauri", and the ""), an administrative region of Italy, and the Basilica Aemilia at Rome. Origin . Several stories were told of the foundation of the Aemilii, of which the most familiar was that their ancestor, Mamercus, was the son of Numa Pompilius. In the late Republic, several other gentes claimed descent from Numa, including the Pompilii, Pomponii, Calpurnii, and Pinarii. A variation of this account stated that Mamercus was the son of Pythagoras, who was sometimes said to have taught Numa. However, as Livy observed, this was not possible, as Pythagoras was not born until more than a century after Numa's death, and was still living in the early days of the Republic. This Mamercus  is said to have received the name of "Aemilius" because of the persuasiveness of his language (), although such a derivation is certainly false etymology. A more likely derivation is from "aemulus", "a rival". According to a different legend, the Aemilii were descended from Aemylos, a son of Ascanius, four hundred years before the time of Numa Pompilius. Still another version relates that the gens was descended from Amulius, the wicked uncle of Romulus and Remus, who deposed his brother Numitor to become king of Alba Longa. In the late Republic, a number of minor families claimed descent from the figures  of Rome's legendary past, including through otherwise unknown sons of Numa. Modern historians dismiss these as late inventions, but the claim of the Aemilii was much older, and there was no corresponding need to demonstrate the antiquity of a gens that was already prominent at the beginning of the Republic. In any case, the Aemilii, like Numa, were almost certainly of Sabine origin. The praenomen "Mamercus" is derived from "Mamers", a god worshipped by the Sabelli of central and southern Italy, and usually regarded as the Sabellic form of Mars. At Rome, this name, and its diminutive, "Mamercinus", were  known primarily as cognomina of the Aemilii and the Pinarii, although the Aemilii continued to use it as a praenomen. A surname of the later Aemilii, "Regillus", seems to be derived from the Sabine town of Regillum, better known as the ancestral home of the Claudia gens, and perhaps alludes to the Sabine origin of the Aemilii. The roots of the Aemilia gens was also connected to the very founding of Rome through the claim that it descended from Aemilia, the daughter of Aeneas and Lavinia. Praenomina. The Aemilii regularly used the praenomina "Lucius, Manius, Marcus," and "Quintus", and occasionally  Mamercus. The Aemilii Mamercini also used "Tiberius" and "Gaius", while the Aemilii Lepidi, who had a particular fondness for old and unusual names, used "Paullus", presumably with reference to the family of the Aemilii Paulli, which had died out nearly a century earlier. An obscure family of uncertain date seems to have used "Caeso". The daughters of the Aemilii are known to have used the numerical praenomina "Prima", "Secunda", and "Tertia", although these were frequently treated as cognomina, and placed at the end of the name. Branches and cognomina. The oldest "stirps" of the Aemilii bore the surname "Mamercus", together  with its diminutive, "Mamercinus"; these appear somewhat interchangeably in early generations. This family flourished from the earliest period to the time of the Samnite Wars. Several other important families, with the surnames "Papus, Barbula, Paullus", and "Lepidus", date from this period, and were probably descended from the Mamercini. The most illustrious of the family was undoubtedly Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus, three times dictator in the second half of the fifth century BC. The Aemilii Papi occur in history for about a century and a half, from the time of the Samnite Wars down to the early second century BC. Their surname , "Papus", like "Mamercus", appears to be of Oscan origin. The name "Aemilius Papus" occurs again in the time of the emperor Hadrian, but properly speaking these appear to have belonged to the Messia gens, and probably claimed descent from the more illustrious Aemilii through a female line. "Barbula", or "little beard", occurs as the surname of one branch of the Aemilii, which appears in history for about a century beginning in the time of the Samnite Wars, and accounting for several consulships. "Paullus", occasionally found as "Paulus", was an old praenomen, meaning "little". As a praenomen, its masculine form had  fallen into disuse at Rome, although the feminine form, "Paulla", in various orthographies, was very common. As a surname, "Paullus" appeared in many families down to the latest period of the Empire, but none were more famous than the Aemilii Paulli. This family was descended from Marcus Aemilius Paullus, consul in 302 BC, and vanished with the death of Lucius Aemilius Paullus, the conqueror of Macedonia, in 160 BC. His sons, though grown, were adopted into the families of the Fabii Maximi and the Cornelii Scipiones. The Aemilii Lepidi revived the name toward the end of the Republic, when it  was fashionable for younger branches of aristocratic families to revive the surnames of older, more illustrious stirpes. The cognomen "Lepidus" belongs to a class of surnames derived from the habits of the habits of the bearer, and evidently referred to someone with a pleasant demeanor. The Aemilii Lepidi appear only a generation after the Aemilii Paulli, beginning with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, consul in 285 BC, and produced many illustrious statesmen down to the first century AD. In the final decades of the Republic, they revived a number of names originally belonging to older stirpes of the Aemilian gens, including "Mamercus  as a praenomen, Regillus" as a cognomen, and "Paullus" as both. The last generations were related by marriage to the imperial family. The Aemilii Scauri flourished from the beginning of the second century BC to the beginning of the first century AD. Their surname, "Scaurus", referred to the appearance of the feet or ankles; Chase suggests "swollen ankles". The cognomina "Regillus" and "Buca" apparently belonged to short-lived families. "Regillus" appears to be derived from the Sabine town of Regillum, perhaps alluding to the Sabine origin of the gens. The Aemilii Regilli flourished for about two generations, beginning at the  time of the Second Punic War. "Buca", probably the same as "Bucca", referred to someone with prominent cheeks, or perhaps someone known for shouting or wailing. The Aemilii Buci are known chiefly from coins, and seem to have flourished toward the end of the Republic. As with other prominent gentes of the Republic, there were some Aemilii whose relationship to the major families is unclear, as the only references to them contain no surname. Some of these may have been descended from freedmen, and been plebeians. Aemilii with a variety of surnames are found in imperial times. Aemilia gens The