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Roman names and their usage...

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by SafricanAndy (U7173046) on Sunday, 7th December 2008

  Dear friends,
  
  Whilst reading a rather poorly written historical novel, called The Field of Swords by Conn Iggulden, I realised that the author has some of the characters, e.g. Brutus, address Julius Caesar as "Julius" and refer to him as "Julius" when addressing others e.g "Have you seen Julius, mother?"...The novel itself starts off "Julius stood by the open window..."...and in sundry places in the novel, Julius this and Julius that...How accurate is that? Would anyone have called him Julius? Or would those closest to him have called him Gaius and those who didn't know him personally Caesar? I had understood that the upper class Roman's "middle" name refered to his gens, or family....but would he be addressed by that name? Somebody please explain this to me....

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  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by TwinProbe (U4077936) on Sunday, 7th December 2008

  Hi SafricanAndy,
  
  It sounds as if the book has it about right. The full Roman naming system (tria nomina) consisted of the praenomen (Gaius), gentile nomen (Julius) and cognomen (Caesar). There was also the signum, a sort of informal, unofficial, name.
  
  There were 15 praenomina in common use and they were often abbreviated. The name was given at birth and used only by the intimate family. I guess that Caesar's mother might have referred to him as 'my little Gaius'.
  
  The nomen gentilicum was a family or 'clan' name as you say, and often ending in -ius (Julius, Claudius, Valerius). The nomen was the chief distinguishing name outside the intimate family. Caesar's early friends and military colleagues would have called him Julius.
  
  The cognomen was peculiar to individual but often β€˜ran’ in families and was related to some physical characteristic (Ahenobarbus, Celer, Caesar). As a distinguished soldier and politician Caesar clearly like to be known by his cognomen.
  
  The application of this system certainly changed with time. In the early Roman period the praenomen and nomen were used for everyday purposes. In the 1st century BC the cognomen became increasingly common but some individuals did not use them: Marcus Antonius, Aulus Plautius, Aulus Vitellius or Julius Caesar. In the Flavian & Antonine eras the full tria nomina is used for Roman citizens. By the 3rd century the habit of mentioning the praenomen is lost and in the 4th century the signum, which had previously been a vulgar usage, becomes popular.
  
  Roman women would frequently take the feminine form of their father’s nomen eg Julia, Claudia, Livia, Lucretia, Cornelia, Drusila, or Antonia. This lasted until marriage whereupon Antonia would have become Antonia Pompeii, or whatever, using her husband's name in the genitive case. During 1st century AD the cognomen became more common for women too. As a cognomen they might employ prima or secunda.
  
  Slaves had a single name; this was usually in Greek form: Polybius, Narcissus etc. On freedom the slave would take the nomen of his former master and use the slave name as a cognomen. So the emperor Claudius’s slave Polybius would become: Cl. Polybius.
  
  Best wishes,
  
  TP
  

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  Posted by Anglo-Norman (U1965016) on Sunday, 7th December 2008

  Sun, 07 Dec 2008 22:33 GMT, in reply to TwinProbe in message 2
  
  Naming can be confusing - there were two Emperors called Titus Flavius Vespasianus; the first took his cognomen as his regnal name, Vespasian. His eldest son (presumably to avoid confusion) used his praenomen for his regnal name - the Emperor Titus. It was quite for fathers and eldest sons to have the same name (the author Lindsey Davis has admitted to consciously 'breaking' this convention, to stop her readers getting too confused!)
  
  There's a useful article on the subject, including an extensive list of names, here:

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