plebeian. Although some of its members, under the republic, rose to senatorial rank (Plut. Mar. 35), and under the empire, when military superseded civil distinctions, to high stations in the army and the provinces (Tac. Ann. 1.74), it never attained the consulship. The Grania Gens was, however, well-known from the age of the poet Lucilius, B. C. 148-103. From a comparison of Cicero (in Verr. 5.59) with Plutarch (Plut. Mar. 35), and Caesar (Caes. Civ. 3.71), the Granii seem to have been settled at Puteoli. Under the republic Granius appears without a cognomen, with the exception of that of FLACCUS, in the time of Julius Caesar; but under the empire we meet with the surnames LICINIANUS, MARCELLUS, MARCIANUS, SERENUS, SILVANUS.
[W.B.D]A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology
Smith, William
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890