Dr. Corbett Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 If anyone wants to make a genuine Latin name for an Imperial, (not the romanized crap that Bethesda comes out with), I might point out that in Roman culture, a citizen would have three names -- First name, clan name, family name -- and a slave, one. Not this wierd two names stuff in Morrowind. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ysgawyn Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 It's true, but not exactly. Originally, Romans had two names: preanomen (first name) -- there was mainly 18 in use: Aulus, Appius, Caius, Cnaeus (or Gnaeus), Decius, Kaeso, Lucius, Laelius, Marcus, Publius, Quintus, Sextus, Servius, Spurius, Titus and Tiberius (and some other ones, used infrequently) -- and nomen gentile (like our surname), this one specified the genus. Latin surnames ended with -ius (eg. Claudius - claudus=cripple, Flavius - flavus=blond, Fabius - faba=bean, Cornelius - cornus=cornel tree), and there was some Etruscan surnames, ended with -as, like Maecenas.Later, as Roman families had grown greater and numerous, they had to discern different families having the same surname, or just the different branches of same families. From the Republic Era, they was given cognomen, or sobriquets, and these sobriquets became persistent with certain surnames (eg. Naso=big nose, Sabinus=Sabin in origin, Cicero=pea, Caesar=long-haired (though Caius Iulius Caesar was hairless... :) ), Plautus=flat-footed, Pulcher=nice, Nero=mannish). The cognomen was used in every cases with the nomen gentile (Claudius Pulcher, Claudius Nero, Iulius Caesar -- all are just family names!)Formal adressing was more difficult, because it contained the father, the grandfather and the tribal name, eg. Marcus Tullius Marci filius Marci nepos Cornelia tribu Cicero was Cicero's formal name :blink: In some cases, someone could have more than one cognomen as well, used to grace someone for a graet deed, like Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus.From the late imperial period, usage of names got disarrayd, some used praenomen instead of nomen gentile, like emperor Titus, or the cognomen instead of praenomen, like emperor Nero, or just to hive names, like Hadrianus, whose full name (after his third consulate) was Imperator Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus Pontifex Maximus Tribunicia Potestate Consul Tertium Pater Patriae The female names were just uncomplicated, they had only one name + their father's or husband's name in Genitive, for example Caecilia Metelli (Metellius' daughter) later Caecilia Crassi (Crassius' wife). Their only name was derived from the nomen gentile, eg. Valeria from Valerius, Fabia from Fabius etc. If there were more than one daughter, they got epithets like Maxima (=eldest), Maior (=elder) , Minor (=youngest) or Prima (=first), Secunda (=2nd), Tertia (=3rd), and so on. They didn't go by cognomen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Corbett Posted September 6, 2003 Author Share Posted September 6, 2003 I got Pwned :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sol'Kanar Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 Roger, pwned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nevex Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 Sorry to say, but no matter how much you know there is always someone who knows more. Oh yes and Palla Volita's words are very in-depth, great job. I now know more about Roman names than I ever wanted to ;) . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eldritch Posted September 8, 2003 Share Posted September 8, 2003 Education is where you find it, or in this case, where it finds you. :D "Didacticism in the pursuit of obfuscation is not a vice." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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