Massimo family

Massimo family is the name of a Roman princely family of great antiquity, descended from the ancient Maximi of republican Rome, and direct descendents of Quintus Fabius Maximus (c. 275 BC-203 BC), called Cunctator (the Delayer). The family is the oldest noble family in Europe and one of the last remaining truly Roman families that make up Rome's Papal Black Nobility, alongside the Colonna and the Orsini families.

Fabius was a Roman politician and soldier, born in Rome around 275 BC. He was consul five times (233 BC, 228 BC, 215 BC, 214 BC and 208 BC) and was twice dictator, 221–219 BC, and 217 BC. His nickname Cunctator means "delayer" in Latin, and refers to his tactics in deploying the troops during the Second Punic War where he defeated Hannibal. Descended from an ancient patrician family, the Fabii, he was a grandson of Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges and a great-grandson of Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus, both famous consuls. According to Roman historian Plutarch, the first of the Fabii was born from the liaison of Hercules with a nymph, rendering the family's origins semi-divine.

The Massimo family were always aligned to the Papacy, and provided two Popes to the Catholic Church, both Saints - St. Anastasius (Pope Anastasuis I, died 401) who denounced the Origenist heresy, and St. Pasquale (Pope Paschal I, died 824) who stood up to the Frankish Kings.

The family name is recorded again after the dark ages in 1012 in the person of Leo de Maximis, and the family played a considerable part in the history of the city in the middle ages. The brothers Pietro and Francesco Massimi acquired fame by protecting and encouraging the German printer Ulrich Hahn, who came to Rome in 1467. In the 16th century the Massimi were the richest of the Roman nobles. A marquisate was conferred on them in 1544, and the lordship of Arsoli in 1574. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were two branches of the Massimi, viz. the Principi Massimo, descended from Camillo Massimiliano (1770-1840), and the dukes of Rignano, descended from Francesco Massimo (1773-1844). One of the sons of the Prince Camillo Carlo Alberto, Don Fabrizio, married Princess Beatrice, daughter of Don Carlos of Bourbon (duke of Madrid), the pretender to the Spanish throne.

The Palazzo Massimo in Rome was built by Baldassare Peruzzi: by order of Pietro Massimo, on the ruins of an earlier palace destroyed in the sack of Rome in 1527.

Current only the Princely branch of the family remains, represented by Don Filippo, Prince of Arsoli (b. 1938), and Don Stefano, Prince of Roccasecca dei Volsci (b. 1954).