The gens Plinia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Few members of this gens are mentioned in history, and the Plinii are best known from the scholar and antiquarian, Gaius Plinius Secundus, author of the Historia Naturalis, who lived during the first century AD. Origin Several Plinii came from Comum and the surrounding region, and this may have been the family's origin. Cisalpine Gaul had received Latin rights in 89 BC, during the Social War, and then full Roman citizenship through the Lex Roscia in 49. Evidence of an element, , is found in proper names from the Lepontic area between the fourth and first centuries BC. In this region, fluidity between /l/ and /r/ is very frequent. Praenomina The main praenomina of the Plinii are Gaius, Lucius, and Publius, three of the most common names throughout Roman history. Other common names are occasionally found, including Gnaeus, Marcus, Titus, Quintus, and Sextus. Members Lucius Plinius L. f. Rufus, praetor designatus in 36 BC, served as legate of Sextus Pompeius, and given command of western Sicily. He surrendered after Pompeius' defeat. Gaius Plinius Secundus, otherwise known as "Pliny the Elder", the first century scholar and antiquarian, devoted his life to compiling knowledge of the natural world. He was a friend of Vespasian, and in command of the Roman fleet at Misenum in AD 79, when he was suffocated by fumes from the eruption of Vesuvius. Plinia Marcella, the sister of Pliny the elder, married Gaius Caecilius, and was the mother of Gaius Caecilius Cilo, afterward Pliny the Younger. After her husband's death, she lived with her brother. Together with her brother and her son, she witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. (It was she who pointed out the eruption to her brother) Gaius Plinius L. f. Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius Cilo, the nephew of the elder Pliny, by whom he was adopted after the death of his father. He held a number of magistracies, culminating in the consulship in AD 100, and was subsequently governor of Bithynia and Pontus. He left a wealth of letters that are of interest to historians. Marcus Plinius Gallus, aedile in AD 46. Gaius Plinius Valerianus, a physician who died at the age of twenty-two. A work on various diseases and their cures in five books has been attributed to him, under the title, Medicinae Plinianae, but there is little evidence linking