Qui'ntia Gens
originally patrician, but subsequently plebeian also.
The ancient and more correct form of the name is
Quinctius, which occurs on coins and the Fasti Capitolini. The Quintia gens was one of the Alban houses removed to Rome by Tullus Hostilius, and enrolled by him among the patricians (
Liv. 1.30).
It was consequently one of the
minors gentes. (Niebuhr,
Hist. of Rome, vol. ii. pp. 291, 292.) Its members often held throughout the whole history of the republic the highest offices of the state, and it produced some men of importance even during the imperial period. For nearly the first forty years after the expulsion of the kings the Quintii are not mentioned, and the first of the gens, who obtained the consulship, was T. Quintius Capitolinus Barbatus in B. C. 471; but from that year their name constantly appears in the Fasti.
The three great patrician families of the Quintia Gens were those of CAPITOLINUS, CINCINNATUS, and FLAMININUS. Besides these we find Quintii with the following surnames: ATTA, CLAUDUS, CRISPINUS, HIRPINUS, SCAPULA, TROGUS. A few persons, who beat no cognomens, are given under QUINTIUS. The only surname that occurs on coins is that of
Crispinus Sulpicianus, which is found on coins struck in the time of Augustus. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 291.)
It is related that it was the custom in the Quintia gens for even the women not to wear any ornaments of gold. (
Plin. Nat. 33.1. s. 6.)
