A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

the name of a family of the Menenia gens, which was of great distinction in the earliest ages of the republic. Livy (2.332), speaking of Agrippa Menenius Lanatus [see below, No. 1], says that he was sprung from the plebs; but as this Agrippa had been consul, and this dignity was not yet open to the plebeians, it is certain that he must have been a patrician , and, consequently, if the statement of Livy is correct, the Lanati must have been made patricians, probably during the reign of one of the later Roman kings.