08-07-2010, 03:27 PM
Quote:What names I can trace from this list they show up in inscriptions dated after the Roman conquest (with recognizable Latin morphology and even derivation, e.g. Celticus), therefore this onomastic sample may be entirely irrelevant to pre-Roman identities. They could have get such names from the conquering Romans (I wouldn't be surprised if some of these Celts were freedmen), therefore it's no evidence they used that name for themselves prior to Roman conquest.
If such names occur mostly in Iberia, then the pre-Roman Celticity becomes even less plausible than before because we have now a even larger area with an allegedly Celtic identity. I somehow thought we're over that huge Celtic Europe, spanning from Iberian peninsula to Central Europe or even Anatolia.
I see. So, I assume you would be saying much the same about Greek and Germanic identities if I provided you with a list of Greek of Germanic ethnic names found in Latin inscriptions with Latinized gender suffixes? :roll:
Christopher Gwinn
