title: Viridia gens
text: # Viridia gens
  
  The gens Viridia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are known only from inscriptions, evidently dating to imperial times.
  
  ## Origin
  
  The nomen Viridius seems to be derived from the Latin viridis, green. Since one of the Viridii left a libationary inscription at Aquae Sulis in Britain, some connection with the obscure British deity Viridios has been suggested, but other Viridii are known from different parts of the Empire.
  
  ## Branches and cognomina
  
  Too few Viridii are known to tell if they were ever divided into distinct families. Two cognomina appear in extant inscriptions: Firmus, a common surname that translates as "firm, strong, hardy", and Tertulla, a diminutive of Tertia, an old feminine praenomen, which was widely used as a surname throughout Roman history.
  
  ## Members
  
  * Viridia, named in an inscription from Narbo in Gallia Narbonensis.
  * Publius Viridius, named in an inscription Forum Julii in the province of Venetia and Histria, dating to the latter part of the first century AD.
  * Quintus Viridius, dedicated a libation to the goddess Sulis, the local genius of Aquae Sulis in Britain.
  * Viridius Firmus, named in an inscription from Poetovio in Pannonia Superior, dating to AD 244, and dedicated to Mithras as Sol Invictus.
  * Viridia Tertulla, the mother of Albucia Tertulla, buried at Brixia in Venetia and Histria.
  