Sornatia gens

The gens Sornatia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Few members of this gens appear in history, of whom the most famous was a general of Lucullus during the Third Mithridatic War, but several others are known from inscriptions.

Origin
The nomen Sornatius resembles other gentilicia formed using the suffix -atius, usually from cognomina ending in -as or -atis, derived from place names, or participles ending in -atus. However, there are no known corresponding surnames; there was, however, a town called Sornum in Dacia. There was also a rare gentile name Sornius, from which the nomen might have been derived.

Members

 * Sornatius, a physician quoted by Pliny the Elder. Sornatius is given as an authority for the proposition that those using a certain hair dye produced by rotting leeches in a leaden vessel full of vinegar should put oil in their mouths to prevent their teeth from blackening along with their hair.
 * Gaius Sornatius C. f., a legate of the proconsul Lucius Licinius Lucullus during the Third Mithridatic War. In 72 BC, he inflicted a devastating defeat on the Pontic army, and nearly captured Mithridates.  When Lucullus invaded Armenia in 69, he left Sornatius in charge of Pontus, with a force of six thousand soldiers.  The following year, his soldiers mutinied, and refused to leave for Armenia, until shamed into doing so by a Roman defeat.
 * Gaius Sornatius C. f., named in an inscription from Castrum Novum in Picenum.
 * Gaius Sornatius C. f., a centurion primus pilus in the Legio X Fretensis, buried at Rome, with a monument from Sornatia Phiale.
 * Sornatia Arecusa, together with her son, Gaius Sornatius Indus, dedicated a tomb at Rome for her husband of forty-three years, Quintus Lucretius Zeuxis, aged sixty.
 * Gaius Sornatius Q. f. Q. n. Indus, together with his mother, Sornatia Arecusa, dedicated a tomb at Rome for his father, Quintus Lucretius Zeuxis.
 * Sornatia Phiale, dedicated a monument at Rome to Gaius Sornatius, the centurion.
 * Gaius Sornatius Plutus, together with Gaius Norbanus Amianthus, masters of a slave named Cedrus, named in an inscription from Rome.
 * Gaius Sornatius Quartio, buried at Rome, with a monument from his sister, Sornatia.
 * Titus Sornatius C. f. Sabinus, buried at Rome during the first century, in a sepulchre built by his mother, Anusia Tertia for herself and her son.