explain please... Cornelius gens

[qselby]

This, at Wikipedia:

Publius Cornelius Dolabella, born 70 BC, was a Roman general, by far the most important of the Dolabellae, a plebian family of the patrician Cornelii. He married Cicero's daughter Tullia Ciceronis.

 

Could someone explain to me "a plebian family of the patrician Cornelii". Either one was a plebe or one wasn't, right? Or was it a subfamily attached or something?

 

I know WikiP isnt always the most reliable so I thought I'd run it by here...

[frankq]

This, at Wikipedia:

Publius Cornelius Dolabella, born 70 BC, was a Roman general, by far the most important of the Dolabellae, a plebian family of the patrician Cornelii. He married Cicero's daughter Tullia Ciceronis.

 

Could someone explain to me "a plebian family of the patrician Cornelii". Either one was a plebe or one wasn't, right? Or was it a subfamily attached or something?

 

I know WikiP isnt always the most reliable so I thought I'd run it by here...

 

This from the Italian Wikipedia:

 

Patrizio appartenente alla Gens Cornelia fu genero di Cicerone ed amico ed alleato di Giulio Cesare. Mentre Cesare era in Egitto, Dolabella si fece adottare da una plebea per poter diventare tribuno della plebe e cancellare i suoi spaventosi debiti.

 

Roughly translated, he was a patrician but pulled a Clodius Pulcher, he had himself adopted by a plebeian family to get the tribunate post which wiped out his horrendous debts.

 

Now my question, I didn't know that serving as people's tribune wiped out one's debts. Did it?

Edited September 11, 2007 by frankq

[Primus Pilus]

Now my question, I didn't know that serving as people's tribune wiped out one's debts. Did it?

 

No, but Dolebella did attempt to cancel debts, to his own benefit. He became tribune presumably in order to do this, the wiki just seems to have this a bit jumbled.

 

See the Rogatio Cornelia de Novis Tabellis (47 BC) here for the detail.

[Nephele]

Could someone explain to me "a plebian family of the patrician Cornelii". Either one was a plebe or one wasn't, right? Or was it a subfamily attached or something?

 

I know WikiP isnt always the most reliable so I thought I'd run it by here...

 

A Roman gens could consist of both patrician and plebian branches (disntinguished by the cognomen), as was the case with not only the Cornelia gens, but also the Antonia gens and Manlia gens, to name a couple.

 

Smith's lists the cognomina of the Cornelia gens, indicating which were patrician (Arvina, Blasio, Cethegus, etc.) and which were plebian (Balbus and Gallus).

 

Of course, Dolabella had been born into a patrician branch of the Cornelii. But, as frankq quoted from the Italian Wikipedia, he had himself adopted into a plebian gens in order to stand for the tribunate in 48 BCE (which is verified in an article I found by John H. Collins in an issue of The Classical Journal).

 

-- Nephele