Gens - gens (English spelling) Latin

Japanese: ゲンス - げんす(英語表記)gens ラテン語
Gens - gens (English spelling) Latin

In ancient Roman society, a group of several families bound together by the consciousness of sharing a name (family name) with their ancestors. So-called clan. In principle, male Roman citizens had three names: personal name praenomen, family name nomen, and cognomen (family name) (for example, Gaius Julius Caesar was a member of the Julian clan). One theory is that prehistoric Rome was a society whose basic unit was a clan community with many protected people, and land was shared within each clan, but there are various theories about the continuity of these clans with clans in historical times. In historical Rome, many clans are known to exist for both patrician (old aristocracy) and plebeian (common people) classes (for example, in 367 BC, there were 22 patrician clans, including 81 families), and within the patrician clans, there were further divisions into large clans (gentes maiores) and small clans (gentes minores). These no longer had any significance as basic social units, and clan meetings were limited to dealing with matters related to family law, such as joint religious rites, wills of clan members, and adoptions, but among the nobles (descendants of high-ranking magistrates), who were the de facto ruling class during the Republic, clans still played a political role. In other words, only those from the largest clans could become heads of the senate, and there was a phenomenon in which one clan or a coalition of two or three clans cooperated in the election of magistrates to monopolize official positions. Although these are strictly distinguished from modern "political parties," they were certainly a kind of faction, and there have been cases where one clan advocated a single policy or line.

Regarding Germanic society, the Romans explained that "above the lower political organizational unit, the kivitas, there was a higher unit, the gens (tribe)."

[Nobuko Kurita]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

古代ローマ社会において、祖先と名前(氏族名)を共有するとの意識で結ばれた複数の家族からなる集団。いわゆる氏族。男子ローマ市民は、原則として、個人名praenomen、氏族名nomen、付属名(家族名)cognomenの三つの名を有した(たとえば、ガイウス・ユリウス・カエサルは、ユリア氏族の成員)。一説では、先史時代のローマはそれぞれ多数の被護民を抱えた氏族共同体を基本単位とする社会であり、土地も各氏族内で共有されたといわれるが、この氏族と歴史時代の氏族の連続性に関しては諸説ある。歴史時代のローマでは、パトリキ(旧貴族)、プレブス(平民)両身分について多数の氏族の存在が知られ(たとえば、紀元前367年にパトリキの氏族は22あり、81家族を含んでいた)、パトリキの氏族のなかに、さらに大氏族gentes maiores、小氏族gentes minoresの別があった。これらにはもはや社会の基本単位としての意味はなく、各氏族の集会では共同の祭祀(さいし)、氏族成員の遺言、養子縁組など、家族法にかかわる案件が処理されるのみであったが、ただし、共和政期の事実上の支配階級であるノビレス(貴顕貴族、高位の政務官就任者の子孫)集団においては、氏族はなお政治的機能を果たした。すなわち、元老院の首席には大氏族出身者しかなれず、また一氏族あるいは2、3の氏族の連合が政務官選挙の際に協力しあって官職を独占する現象がみられた。これらは、近代的「政党」とは厳密に区別されるものの、一種の派閥であることは確かであり、一氏族が一つの政策、路線を掲げる例も指摘されている。

 なお、ゲルマン人の社会についてローマ人は「下位の政治組織単位キーウィタースの上により上位の単位ゲンス(部族)があった」と説明している。

[栗田伸子]

出典 小学館 日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について 情報 | 凡例

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