Roman names

meisenimverbis

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What do you think of proper names in the ancient Roman culture? I love to make characters, and I found out that it's so cool to imagine a family with names of all the members (slaves included). Petronius' Satyricon is set in cities in the south regions of Italy, and it has a lot of Greek names. I've been searching some of them, and I found out that it isn't difficult to find actual people in those cities of the Satyricon (Puteoli, Croton) and around them (Canusium, Brundisium...) with those Greek names as cognomina.

Do you have any experiences with Roman names you'd like to share?
 

meisenimverbis

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For example, there's a character in the Satyricon, in the list of names in the 1965 edition I'm reading, who is called Phileros, one of Trimalchio's guests.If you search Phileros in the wikipedia, you won't have an entry, but it'll give a few entries for Roman gentes who had a Phileros as cognomen. One of them is gens Patulcia. If you notice, quite a few Patulcii are from south Italy and there's one Gn. Patulcius Phileros, down there... And other Patulcii that are from Puteoli. And a bunch of them with Greek cognomina, men and women. There is one Sex. Patulcius Apolaustus married to a Pomponia Chrysis. Well, Chrysis is another name in the characters list of the Satyricon. And this couple lived in Puteoli. This is absolutely amazing! It seems Petronius was worried about portraying people that seemed real.
 

meisenimverbis

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Very similar is Niceros, in the Satyricon too. Another guest of Trimalchio. The list says of him that he is "one of the more interesting guests of Trimalchio". This one is mentioned in the wikipedia in entries Trimalchio (which doesn't say much), and Werewolf (!), which says that "one of the characters, Niceros, tells a story at a banquet about a friend who turned into a wolf (chs. 61-62). He describes the incident as follows, (...)". Anyway, the wikipedia also gives Niceros as cognomen in a gens, the gens Farsuleia, there's a L. Farsuleius Niceros Fuscus, whose sister was named Farsuleia Theophila, and his mother, Martha (hebrew name). And many other Farsuleii around the Empire: Alexandria, Africa Proconsularis, Numidia, Germania Inferior, Gallia Cisalpina, Pannonia, Noricum.
 

meisenimverbis

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Aramaic, to be pedantic about it (as you'd expect from this sort of forum).

It would possibly not have sounded so if you hadn't brought the word yourself... :think: However, the correction is, indeed, expected from this sort of forum. And appreciated.
 

J.M

Active Member

Greetings,

I just thought about how some latin names originated from ordinal numbers such as:

Quintus = 5th
Octavius = 8th
Decimus = 10th
Septimus = 7th

But unfortunately as I am not a qualified Latinist I cannot secure that my statement is correct, if anyone can please do so

Thank you as always for your time,
J.M
 
B

Bitmap

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Yes.

You will not be surprised to hear that Sextus stands for 6th.
 
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J.M

Active Member

:hammer:
Somehow I laughed at the thought of it,
J.M
 

meisenimverbis

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And Tertia for 3rd (female).

Is there Artemidora as a name in the ancient times, or is it medieval? What is it like in Greek, Artemidora or Artemidore?
 

meisenimverbis

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Greetings,

I just thought about how some latin names originated from ordinal numbers such as:

Quintus = 5th
Octavius = 8th
Decimus = 10th
Septimus = 7th

But unfortunately as I am not a qualified Latinist I cannot secure that my statement is correct, if anyone can please do so

Thank you as always for your time,
J.M
There's also gentes:

Quartius, Quartinius/Petronius
Quin(c)tilius
Sextilius
Septimius
Octavius
Nonius
Decimius, Decius

Tertullianus was a Septimius. The cognomen Tertullianus is probably from a mother or a grandmother, or a mother of one of his ancestors... A son of a Tertulla or Tertia.
 

meisenimverbis

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Appius Popidius. Numerius Popidius. I'm willing to use an Appius in the stories. Maybe a Popidius... :think:
 

meisenimverbis

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meisenimverbis

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Praenomina in order of frequency:

Lucius
Gaius
Marcus
Publius
; Quintus
Titus
Aulus
; Gnaeus; Sextus
Spurius
Servius
Manius
Tiberius
Appius
; Caeso*
Decimus; Numerius**
...
____
*used by few gentes
**more popular among plebeii

(The fact that the registers are mostly of wealthier people, it's hard to tell what it was really like, I wonder. :think: )
 

Serenus

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Your note about Numerius being a more popular in the plebs is interesting considering that that name appears in what is possibly the oldest attestation of Latin, the Praeneste Fibula, probably from the 7th century BC:

MANIOS MED FHEFHAKED NVMASIOI
'Manius made me for Numerius.'
 
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