Gens is a word that derives from Latin roots, which can be translated in our language as “family”, a Latin voice that is also related to words such as people, gene, genetics or generation. The gens entry refers to a guild or social organization that coexisted in the time of Ancient Rome; where each gens was formed by a certain group of individuals, who stated that they came from a common mythical ancestor, who gave the name to the so-called gens, that is, the “nomen gentilicium”; the gens were ruled by a leader, who was generally acquired by the oldest man in the group, who was called “the pater”.
Each of the gens was an economic, political and religious entity; They also had their own territory, made up of each of the dwellings or houses of the members and the properties they cultivated and where they kept their livestock. They were communities that worshiped their own gods, through different types of cults and common funeral rites.
Differentiating the Greek gens from the Roman ones, given that the latter came from the male part of the ancestor referred to in the nomen, he was not worshiped, remembered or honored. In addition, the members of these organizations were gentiles and all of them had the same name, which was the nomen gentilicium, in this way it would indicate the presence of a common ancestor.
And it was the Roman jurist, philosopher, politician, orator, and writer, Marco Tulio Cicero who manifested the main characteristics of the gens, which were three: first, none of their ancestors, ancestors was a slave; second, each of its members were naive, that is to say that they had always been free people; and third, that they did not suffer from any "capitis deminutio", that is, they never lost their freedom, citizenship or ceased to be part of their family.
