Two Lycian Families

Abstract

Perhaps the best known of all the aristocratic Lycian families is that of the Licinnii of Oenoanda, whose ramifications are set out in their genealogy (IGR. III, 500). This document, perhaps the most complete of its kind, not only reveals the complicated nexus of relationships forming the structure of such a family, but also provides much incidental information which demonstrates how its various members became prominent.It seems probable that the earliest members of the family to bear Roman nomina, Licinnius Musaeus and Marcius Thoas, obtained the franchise under Nero and Vespasian respectively. Licinnius Musaeus will have received citizenship from the governor C. Licinnius Mucianus (a fact borne out by the name of Musaeus' grandson Mucianus), Marcius Thoas from Sextus Marcius Priscus, legatus Augusti pro praetore of Lycia and Pamphylia under Vespasian.The first few generations of the enfranchised family produced a number of high-ranking officials of the Lycian Koinon, but were not otherwise especially significant. In the early stages of its history there was a good deal of intermarriage among members of this family—the product, perhaps, of a combination of insularity and social exclusiveness. Such marriage partners as were not chosen from within the family itself came from the higher strata of Lycian society, from families which were socially acceptable to the Licinnii and locally distinguished. For the majority of the Licinnii this remained the pattern for so long as we have any knowledge of them.