The gens Petronia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. This gens claimed an ancient lineage, as a Petronius Sabinus is mentioned in the time of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last of the Roman kings, but few Petronii are mentioned in the time of the Republic. They are frequently encountered under the Empire, holding numerous consulships, and eventually obtaining the Empire itself during the brief reign of Petronius Maximus in AD 455.
Denarius issued by Publius Petronius Turpilianus, circa 19 or 18 BC. The obverse depicts Augustus, the reverse Pegasus.
Petronius Maximus was Roman emperor of the West for two and a half months in 455. A wealthy senator and a prominent aristocrat, he was instrumental in the murders of the Western Roman magister militum, Aƫtius, and the Western Roman emperor, Valentinian III.
A depiction of the sack of Rome by the Vandals