The gens Menenia was a very ancient and illustrious patrician house at Rome from the earliest days of the Roman Republic to the first half of the fourth century BC. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Agrippa Menenius Lanatus in 503 BC. The gens eventually drifted into obscurity, although its descendants were still living in the first century BC.
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Origin
During the first secession of the plebs in 493 BC, Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, the former consul, was despatched by the Senate as an emissary to the plebeians, who were gathered on the Mons Sacer. He said that he was sprung from the plebs, although he and several generations of his descendants held the consulship at a time when it was open only to the patricians. This suggests that the Menenii must have been made patricians, probably during the reign of one of the later Roman kings.
Praenomina
The Menenii are known to have used the praenomina Agrippa, Gaius, Titus and Lucius. Together with the gens Furia, they were amongst the only patrician families to make regular use of the praenomen Agrippa, which was later revived as a cognomen in many families. For this reason, later sources erroneously refer to members of this gens as Menenius Agrippa.
Licinus, the praenomen of one of the Menenii, was likewise a rare name, meaning upturned. Like Agrippa, Licinus was later known primarily as a surname, but it is most frequently confused with the nomen Licinius, which was probably derived from it, although perhaps connected to the Etruscan lecne, which seems to have been its equivalent. Livy preserves the praenomen as Licinius, but later historians appear to have amended it to the more common praenomen Lucius.
Branches and cognomina
The only cognomen associated with the Menenii is Lanatus. This surname is derived from the Latin adjective, meaning "wooly", and perhaps originally referred to a person with particularly fine, curly, or abundant hair.