Roman Abbreviations

[floofthegoof]

When I see translations of many Roman inscriptions on coins, gravestones etc. I noticed that they often chop the end of the words off, sometimes leaving only the first letter. These would not seem to always be common abbreviations either.

Example

Look at the above example. How on earth would anyone, Roman or modern historian, know that PP meant Patri Pissimo? Would a passerby in ancient times be able to make sense of this inscription? Are there rules to these abbreviations that were common knowledge? It seems almost sloppy.

[Praefectusclassis]

Hi Rich,
The way we know is prolly the way the Romans knew: you add/emend abbreviations by deduction (i.e. what goes where) and experience, having seen more inscriptions. Some abbreviations were first written out in full, then shortened and shortened. In the case of coins, you would see abbreviations of titulature that was written in full (or less abbreviated) on statue bases, arches, etc.

[floofthegoof]

It just seems so extreme! In the example I gave, *most* of the words are abbreviated.

The above sentence:

IJSEEEXT
INEXIGV
MWABB

KWIM?

[Praefectusclassis]

True, but such tombstones are also highly formulaic. They only wrote in full what was special. If you analyze it, it's not so hard:
C Castriciu/
s C Off Vict/
or Como mil /
leg II Ad | M /
Turbonis an /
XXXVIII stip XIIII /
h s e L Lucilius f /
et he posuit p p

It's a tombstone, so that usually starts with a name, which is almost always noted as Praenomen Nomen, son of Praenomen [of the voting tribe x] Cognomen [from y/ of the tribe].
There are only so many Roman first names, so they can be easily abbreviated. Nomens are more varied, so that's in full. His dad's first name, usually with an f (for filius) but not here, in the genitive follows, which can again be easily abbreviated. Then follows the voting tribe, of which there are 35, which can be uniquely be identified by the first three letters. Then there's the Cognomen, which is again in full because, especially with 'foreigners' (like auxiliaries), there is great variety. Finally, there's the city or tribe from which the man came. Lots of possibilities, so in full, or minimally abbreviated, again.
After the full name, comes the rank(s) and unit(s) the soldier served in, always in that order. Legion, cohort or fleet can be easily shortened, the unit name itself depends on the type. There are only a few fleets, several dozen legions and dozens and dozens of auxiliary units. Then we come to the age & time served, always in that order, so a(nnis) and m(ilitavit) or s(tipendiorum) suffice, but if space allows, longer versions occur too. The number of years evidently cannot be shortened.
HSE is a standard formula to close an epitaph, H(ic) S(itus) E(st): lies here. The heir (heres) or heirs (heredes) then follow, so names again and then perhaps a note about what the heirs did, probably p(osuit): set this up, according to the deceased's will: e(x) t(estamento). At the end something nice about the deceased perhaps, like b(ene) m(erenti): for he was very worthy, or p(atri) p(iissimo): for his pious father.

I hope that clears some of the fog over abbreviations!

[floofthegoof]

I wonder if there is an economic reason for the abbreviations. I imagine it costs a pretty penny to hire someone to chisel out letters in stone by hand. Maybe they charged by the letter?

[Praefectusclassis]

IIRC there are tombstones where the deceased proudly mentioned how much he paid to be remembered so nicely. Yes, tombstones were expensive. You have to realize that there were probably thousands & thousands of wooden memorials that have not survived, then there are thousands again of simple, small stone markers with a short inscription. The type like Castricius had set up (not to mention the type like Poblicius's stone), was definitely for diligent savers or the wealthy!
Also, we know that such tombstones with images on them were often premade, so there was a limited field for text!

[richsc]

how about

no trucks over 15 TGVW?

RSVP

HOV2

LSMFT

there are plenty of examples in current languages of abbreviations so common that no one needs to spell them out.

[floofthegoof]

Here's a modern example I just thought of:

RIP

:lol:

I don't think anyone does that anymore though.

[Edit] except cartoons.

[Uwe Bahr]

... and there are some abbreviations that I only learned when I met this forum:

IIRC - BTW - IMO - IMHO - ROTK - RTW

mfg - Uwe *)



*) [size=75:3ukdxcbw]If I remember correctly - by the way - in my opinion - in my humble opinion - Return of the King - Rome total War - mit freundlichen Grüßen[/size]

[Robert Vermaat]

Did someone already mention this website: [url:1wamyczb]http://asgle.classics.unc.edu/abbrev/latin/[/url]?
Abbreviations in Latin Inscriptions
Conceived and compiled by Tom Elliott ( [email protected] )
for the ASGLE web site

For internet slang, go here:
[url:1wamyczb]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_internet_slang[/url]