Tradition indicates that the Antistii came to Rome from Gabii, an ancient Latin town a short distance to the east. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antistius Petro, leader of Gabii, concluded a treaty with Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last King of Rome.[4][5] Moreover, the gens may have claimed descent from the Alban kings since Gabii was an Alban foundation and the name 'Antistius' was claimed to derive from Antho daughter of Amulius, king of Alba and uncle of Romulus and Remus.[i][7]
The oldest branches of the gens Antistia used the praenominaSextus, Aulus, Lucius, and Marcus. In the later Republic, members of the gens also used Publius, Titus, and Gaius. The Antistii Veteres used primarily Gaius and Lucius. One Quintus appears in the imperial era.
In the earlier ages of the Republic, none of the members of the gens appear with any surname, and even in later times they are sometimes mentioned without one. The surnames under the Republic are Gragulus, Labeo, Reginus, and Vetus. The last of these, the Antistii Veteres, were the greatest of the Antistii. In 29 BC, Octavian elevated this family to the patriciate.[1][8] They held several consulships from the time of Augustus to that of Antoninus Pius.
Gragulus refers to a jackdaw (graculus in Latin), which is displayed on the bronze coins of the only known Antestius with this cognomen.[9]
Antistia P. f., daughter of the orator, and the first wife of Pompeius, who, after her father's assassination, divorced her at Sulla's instigation.[10]
Antistius, a prosecutor of old age who fell victim to Sulla's proscriptions.[34][35]
Lucius Antistus, tribune of the plebs in 58 BC, attempted to prosecute Caesar, but was prevented from doing so by the other tribunes.[36]
Lucius Antistius Reginus, tribune of the plebs in 103 BC, freed his friend the consul Quintus Servilius Caepio and went into exile at Smyrna with him.[51][52]
^See Plutarch, "The Life of Romulus", 3, 4. On this claim see 'Ethnic Identity and Aristocratic Cmopetition in Republican Rome', Gary D. Farney, Cambridge University Press, 2007, 288-9. Two inscriptions name a Lucius Antistius as a member of the Salii Albani.[6] On this priesthood see M.G. Granino Cecere, "Sacerdotes Cabenses e sacerdotes Albani", pp. 275–289.
August Pauly; Georg Wissowa; Wilhelm Kroll; Kurt Witte; Karl Mittelhaus; Konrat Ziegler (eds.). Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (1840-1980). Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler.
Joseph Hilarius Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum Veterum (The Study of Ancient Coins, 1792–1798).
Anthologia Graeca sive Poetarum Graecorum Lusus, ex Recensione Brunckii (The Greek Anthology, or Works of the Greek Poets, or the Collection of Brunck), Friedrich Jacobs, ed., Dyck, Leipzig (1794).
George Crabb, Universal Historical Dictionary, Baldwin and Cradock, London (1833).
Wilhelm Drumann, Geschichte Roms in seinem Übergang von der republikanischen zur monarchischen Verfassung, oder: Pompeius, Caesar, Cicero und ihre Zeitgenossen, Königsberg (1834–1844).
Liber Pontificalis (The Book of the Popes), ed. Louise Ropes Loomis, Columbia University Press (1916).
T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, American Philological Association (1952).
Badian, Ernst (1974). "The Attempt to Try Caesar". In J.A.S. Evans (ed.). Polis and Imperium: Studies in Honour of Edward Togo Salmon. Toronto: Hakkert. pp. 145–166. ISBN0-88866-526-1.
Michael Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, Cambridge University Press (1974, 2001).
M.G. Granino Cecere, "Sacerdotes Cabenses e sacerdotes Albani", in A. Pasqualini (editor), Alba Longa. Mito, storia, archeologia. Atti dell'Incontro di Studio, Roma-Albano Laziale, 27–29 gennaio 1994.
Giuseppe Camodeca, "I consoli del 43 e gli Antistii Veteres d’età claudia dalla riedizione delle Tabulae Erculanenses" (The Consuls of 43 and the Antistii Veteres of the Claudian Age, from the New Edition of the Tabulae Herculanenses), in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, vol. 138, pp. 259–269 (2002).
Andreas Krieckhaus, Senatorische Familien und ihre patriae (1./2. Jahrhundert n. Chr.), Kovač, Hamburg (2006), ISBN3-8300-1836-3.
Gary D. Farney, Ethnic Identity and Aristocratic Competition in Republican Rome, Cambridge University Press (2007).
A Companion to Marcus Aurelius, Marcel van Ackeren, ed., Wiley–Blackwell (2012).