Wednesday 20 June 2018

130) Gens Domitia

The gens Domitia was a plebeian family at Rome. During the time of the Republic, we meet with only two branches of this gens, the Ahenobarbi and Calvini.
The family named Ahenobarbus was so called from the red hair which many of its members had. To explain this name, which signifies, "Red-Beard" (literally, "Bronze-Beard"), and to assign a high antiquity to their family, it was said that the Dioscuri announced to one of their ancestors the victory of the Romans over the Latins at Lake Regillus (498 BC), and, to confirm the truth of what they said, that they stroked his black hair and beard, which immediately became red.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domitia_gens

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