The gens Aurunculeia was a plebeian

Plebs

The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...

 family at Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

. None of the members of this gens

Gens

In ancient Rome, a gens , plural gentes, referred to a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps . The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the...

ever obtained the consulship

Roman consul

A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...

; the first who obtained the praetor

Praetor

Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...

ship was Gaius Aurunculeius, in 209 BC.

Origin of the gens

The nomen Aurunculeius is probably derived from the name of the Aurunci

Aurunci

The Aurunci were an Italic population which lived in southern Italy from around the 1st millennium BC. Of Indo-European origin, their language belonged to the Oscan group...

, a race of people from rural Campania

Campania

Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

, conquered by the Romans in 314 BC, during the Second Samnite War. The Aurunculei may have been of Auruncan origin, or perhaps less probably, descendants of the colonists sent to the towns of the Aurunci beginning in 313.

Branches and cognomina of the gens

The only cognomen

Cognomen

The cognomen nōmen "name") was the third name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary. Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name in order to identify a particular branch within...

associated with the Aurunculeii is Cotta.

Members of the gens

• Gaius Aurunculeius, praetor
  Praetor
  Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
  
   in 209 BC, during the Second Punic War
  Second Punic War
  The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on...
  
  , had the province of Sardinia
  Sardinia
  Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
  
  .
• Gaius Aurunculeius, tribunus militum
  Military tribune
  A military tribune was an officer of the Roman army who ranked below the legate and above the centurion...
  
  for the third legion in 207 BC.
• Lucius Aurunculeius, praetor urbanus in 190 BC, and one of ten commissioners sent to arrange the affairs of Asia at the conclusion of the war with Antiochus the Great
  Antiochus III the Great
  Antiochus III the Great Seleucid Greek king who became the 6th ruler of the Seleucid Empire as a youth of about eighteen in 223 BC. Antiochus was an ambitious ruler who ruled over Greater Syria and western Asia towards the end of the 3rd century BC...
  
  , in 188.
• Gaius Aurunculeius, one of three ambassadors sent into Asia in 155 BC, to prevent Prusias II of Bithynia
  Prusias II of Bithynia
  Prusias II Cynegus was the king of Bithynia. He was the son and successor of Prusias I and Apama III....
  
   from making war upon Attalus
  Attalus II Philadelphus
  Attalus II Philadelphus was a King of Pergamon and the founder of modern-day Turkish city Antalya...
  
  .
• Lucius Aurunculeius Cotta
  Lucius Aurunculeius Cotta
  Lucius Aurunculeius Cotta – officer in the Gallic army of Gaius Julius Caesar. The little we know of Cotta is found in Book V of Caesar's De Bello Gallico...
  
  , one of Caesar's
  Julius Caesar
  Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
  
   legates
  Legatus
  A legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes...
  
   in Gaul
  Gaul
  Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
  
  , slain in battle with Ambiorix
  Ambiorix
  Ambiorix was, together with Catuvolcus, prince of the Eburones, leader of a Belgic tribe of north-eastern Gaul , where modern Belgium is located...
  
  in 54 BC.