The
gens Licinia was a celebrated
plebeian family at
Rome, which appears from the earliest days of the
Republic until
imperial times, and which eventually obtained the imperial dignity. The first of the
gens to obtain the
consulship was
Gaius Licinius Calvus Stolo, who, as
tribune of the plebs from 376 to 367 BC, prevented the election of any of the annual
magistrates, until the
patricians acquiesced to the passage of the
lex Licinia Sextia, or Licinian Rogations. This law, named for Licinius and his colleague,
Lucius Sextius, opened the consulship for the first time to the plebeians. Licinius himself was subsequently elected consul in 364 and 361 BC, and from this time, the Licinii became one of the most illustrious gentes in the Republic.