The gens Tullia was a family at ancient Rome, with both patrician and plebeian branches. The first of this gens to obtain the consulship was Manius Tullius Longus in 500 BC, but the most illustrious of the family was Marcus Tullius Cicero, the statesman, orator, and scholar of the first century BC. The earliest of the Tullii who appear in history were patrician, but all of the Tullii mentioned in later times were plebeian, and some of them were descended from freedmen.[1] The English form Tully, often found in older works, especially in reference to Cicero, is now considered antiquated.
The nomen Tullius is a patronymic surname, derived from the old Latin praenomen Tullus, probably from a root meaning to support, bear, or help.[2] The Tullii of the Republic sometimes claimed descent from Servius Tullius, the sixth King of Rome, who according to some traditions was the son of Servius Tullius, a prince of Corniculum who was slain in battle against the Romans under Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth Roman king.[3] However, the Roman historians report that the Tullii were one of the Alban noble families that came to Rome after the destruction of their city during the reign of Tullus Hostilius, the third King of Rome.[4] This would probably make the Tullii one of the gentes minores, the lesser patrician houses of the Republic.[1][5]
The main praenomina used by the Tullii were Marcus and Lucius. To these, the Tullii Cicerones added Quintus. Manius is found only among the patrician Tullii at the beginning of the Republic, and there are individual instances of Sextus and Tiberius.
The patrician Tullii bore the cognomen Longus, tall, but only one of them appears in history.[6] The notable plebeian families bore the surnames Decula and Cicero. The latter, among the most famous of Roman cognomina, belongs to a common class of surnames derived from familiar objects.[7] This family came from Arpinum, the inhabitants of which were granted Roman citizenship in 188 BC. Plutarch reports that the surname was given to an ancestor of the orator, who had a cleft in the tip of his nose in the shape of a chickpea, or cicer. At the beginning of his career, Cicero was urged to adopt a more auspicious surname, but he declined, stating that he would make the name famous.[8] Most other surnames found with the Tullii of the Republic belonged to freedmen, but a number of the family bore no cognomen.[1][9]