Scantinia gens

The gens Scantinia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned in the third century BC, but few of them held positions of importance in the Roman state.

Origin
The nomen Scantinius belongs to a common class of gentilicia formed using the suffix -inius. Such names were typically derived from surnames ending in -inus, but this type was so common that -inius came to be regarded as a regular gentile-forming suffix, and was applied even in cases where there was no morphological justification. There is no evidence of a corresponding cognomen Scantinus, so the name was probably formed directly from Scantius, another gentile name. The similar nomen Scandilius was probably formed in the same manner.

Branches and cognomina
The only cognomen associated with any of the Scantinii mentioned in history is Capitolinus, one of a large class of surnames derived from one's place of origin or residence. It indicated that its bearer or one of his ancestors lived on the Capitoline Hill, one of the Seven Hills of Rome.

Members

 * Gaius Scantinius Capitolinus, accused by Marcus Claudius Marcellus of having propositioned his son, when Scantinius and Marcellus were both aediles, about 226 BC. The senate was convinced by the testimony of Marcellus' son, and condemned Scantinius to a fine, which Marcellus used to make three silver libation bowls, which he dedicated to the gods.
 * Publius Scantinius, one of the pontifices, died in 216 BC. He and two of his colleagues, who fell at Cannae, were among those officials and magistrates for whom replacements were chosen in the wake of that catastrophe.
 * Scantinius, tribune of the plebs in an uncertain year, was the author of the lex Scantinia de Nefanda Venere, a law forbidding certain sexual practices. Cicero's friend, Marcus Caelius Rufus, was accused under this law by Appius Claudius Pulcher, censor in 50 BC, but the charge rebounded against him and came to naught.
 * Marcus Scantinius M. f., one of the quindecimviri sacris faciundis named in the Fasti Albenses, a list of magistrates from the time of Caesar to the early years of Tiberius.
 * Gaius Scantinius, buried at Rome.