Roman Naming Practices.

[Doug Strong]

Salve,

I am new to this forum. I have been reading it for a while and have been favorably impressed so I decided to join and start posting. Some of you may know me from the Armour Archive where I am quite active. I am also on the Board of Directors for the Armour Research Society. Not surprisingly I am really into armour. I am a fanatic about late 14th century plate armour and am active in reproducing it. Over the last several years I have begun to look at Roman armour and am really enjoying learning about it. I do have a few questions that someone here my be able to answer for me. Please forgive my ignorance.

1. are there any good sources for Roman naming practices. I do 1380s English and have that down but really do not have a CLUE about naming practices for a 1st century Roman soldier who might have been posted near Hadrains' Wall in England. As a followup, what units were stationed along the wall? Did these change quite a bit over time or was it consistent?

[caiusbeerquitius]

Here,here, and here.

[Praefectusclassis]

And Doug: you'll have to adapt something. Either forget about the wall or about reenacting the 1st century. But they do not go together.

[caiusbeerquitius]

) P

[Doug Strong]

And Doug: you'll have to adapt something. Either forget about the wall or about reenacting the 1st century. But they do not go together.

One of my real weaknesses in understanding the timeline. I am pretty good with the objects from the culture but not so for the history.

[Doug Strong]

Can I try out a name here? Each word had meaning for me but I'm not sure ifthey would go together and if I missed something altogether.

Titus Fabricius Fortus Cornelia

Titus-- I laways liked the play Titus Andonicus
Fabricius-- I am a maker of many things
Fortus-- My modern surname is Strong
Tribus Cornelia-- I did my undergraduate work at Cornell College.

They make sense to me but do they work?

[Caius Fabius]

on naming

The first name is the praenomen Titus
Your Patron's name in the masculine* Cornelius
the second name is the personal family name Fortus
last a cogniomen of Fabricius

This might go well for an auxiliary soldier on Hadrian's wall.
The name your friends will call you is Fabricius (Fah Bree Key oos)


again, it would depend on whether your parents were patrician, plebian, freedmen or slaves, and what time period you are interested in, either 1st century or Hadrian's Wall at the time of Hadrian or a later emperor.

*Titus Cornelius (masculine Patrician name), would have been taken by your father or grandfather when he received his freedom. His name might have been "the Strong" which would become his family name, and then the nickname can be one that you have earned.

Sorry, can't get into detail, my references are not here where I am working tonight.

[Doug Strong]

Thanks for the help.

[hansvl]

Hi Doug,

Fine choise for a Roman name. But here are some clarifications.

Fortus should be Fortis, that's the correct word for strong. Fortis is a well known cognomen and very suitable for a soldier.

Cornelia is a Roman tribus and a sure sign that you are a Roman citizen. Since you want to reenact 1st century AD you would be joining the legions rather than the auxiliaries (non-citizen troops, although some citizens joined auxilia, but that's more a trend from the 2nd century AD onwards).

Names were usually abreviated.

Titus Fabricius Fortus Cornelia will become T. Fabricius Cor. Fortis.
You might want to add an patronymicon like Caii filius (abbreviated: Cf)

Then you get: T Fabricius Cf Cor Fortis

usually only your praenomen, gentilicium and cognomen is used.

Hans

[Tib. Gabinius]

Just by the way:
As a peregrinus, a non roman (so between augusteian and severian time, to the Constitutio Antoniniana in 212), serving in an auxiliary unit, you ARENT allowed neither to use the tria nomina, praenomen, nomen gentile and cognomen, nor the tribus or signum (a part ofthe name, not the field sign).
You are allowed to use your own name and a filiation, the name of your father in genetivium.
There were some tricks, how many got another, a third part into the name, but the regular trinomina wasnt allowed.
Just to mention it.

[Doug Strong]

Hi Doug,

Fine choise for a Roman name. But here are some clarifications.

Fortus should be Fortis, that's the correct word for strong. Fortis is a well known cognomen and very suitable for a soldier.

Cornelia is a Roman tribus and a sure sign that you are a Roman citizen. Since you want to reenact 1st century AD you would be joining the legions rather than the auxiliaries (non-citizen troops, although some citizens joined auxilia, but that's more a trend from the 2nd century AD onwards).

Names were usually abreviated.

Titus Fabricius Fortus Cornelia will become T. Fabricius Cor. Fortis.
You might want to add an patronymicon like Caii filius (abbreviated: Cf)

Then you get: T Fabricius Cf Cor Fortis

usually only your praenomen, gentilicium and cognomen is used.

Hans

So if understand correctly, it should be T Fabricius Cor Fortis which would woudl be appropriate for a Roman serving in the legions in the first century.

Is this a very time specific name? Would it work a century eariler or later?

I am also confused a bit about patronimics. Assuming a I am the first son might my father be named T Fabricius Cor Fortis and would my borthers then be Q Fabricius Cor Fortis, P Fabricius Cor Fortis and M Fabricius Cor Fortis?

This is a very humbling experience for me. I am used to being the answer guy for all things 14th century. I am really out of my depth.

[hansvl]

So if understand correctly, it should be T Fabricius Cor Fortis which would woudl be appropriate for a Roman serving in the legions in the first century.

Is this a very time specific name? Would it work a century eariler or later?

I am also confused a bit about patronimics. Assuming a I am the first son might my father be named T Fabricius Cor Fortis and would my borthers then be Q Fabricius Cor Fortis, P Fabricius Cor Fortis and M Fabricius Cor Fortis?

This is a very humbling experience for me. I am used to being the answer guy for all things 14th century. I am really out of my depth.

Yes Doug, the name you have chosen is very suitable for first century AD but what I said about the abbreviation is something noticed on e.g. gravestones. And the fully extended name (i.e. with tribus and patronymicon) was not used in everyday practice, it's only used in very official documents or (especially in the first century A.D., mostly even pre-Flavian) on gravestones.

So, in you community you would be known as Titus Fabricius Fortis. Your family would most likely call you Titus. Your friends would address you most likely with Fortis or (because Fortis is a wide spread cognomen) with Fabricius, close friends perhaps also with Titus.

Your name would work fine in the second century AD, although the praenomen seems to disappear in the names from the second half of that century onwards. In the Republic and early first century AD (untill ca Claudius) many persons didn't carry a cognomen.

Because there weren't many praenomina and the firstborn male was usually called after his father, the use of cognomina grew so to be able to make the difference between people with the same name. So most of the time its the cognomen that will differ. Usually just one son would have the same cognomen as is father (sometimes none at all).

Hans

[Caius Fabius]

Actually the freedman often took the name of his owner, including his gens name as a part of his name, including the owner's gens, as an in depth discussion from [amazon]Slavery in the Roman Empire[/amazon] will show. R.H. Barrow discusses the understanding of slave names, peregrine names, (a freedman Roman but not a Roman citizen), foreign names (where the non-Roman, non-citizen chose a Roman name after contact with Rome), and the names of Roman citizens.

The gens and other names were given a gender specific ending when not actually a member of the gens, but instead granted the name as a part of emancipation or some forms of legal adoption.

When a man was freed, he and his family became clients of the person who had freed them, and took their tribal affiliation in the Early and Middle Empire, (before all Romans were granted citizenship).

This is one reason that you will have so many 'Titus Flavians..something', for example, who are granted their citizenship after serving in the auxiliaries. They added their non-citizen name to the emperor's name, since he was the patron and the one who freed them. Then two or three generations later, you have T. Flaviani who are not related to the Imperial family, and are allowed to join the legions as rankers or even equestrians!

[hansvl]

Hi,

First of all I should have mentioned in my previous post that I was talking about names of Roman citizens.

The generalizations made by some members do not fit this specialized study

What do you mean with that remark?

Doug had choosen: Titus Fabricius Fortus Cornelia

on naming

The first name is the praenomen Titus
Your Patron's name in the masculine* Cornelius
the second name is the personal family name Fortus
last a cogniomen of Fabricius

I think you got a little bit confused here by Cornelia. Doug ment not the masculine Cornelius, which is indeed a well-known gentilicium, but clearly the tribus Cornelia (voting tribe; every citizen was enlisted in one; other well known tribusnames are Oufentina, Publia, ...).

Tribus Cornelia-- I did my undergraduate work at Cornell College.

So, Doug is clearly referring to a Roman citizen name. There's no patron involved at all.

Hans

[Caius Fabius]

I was more interested in his desire to be on Hadrian's Wall, where most of the soldiers were auxiliaries, with the Legions being stationed further away, at least if you believe many of the current studies on that subject. Since Fortus and Fabricus are not documented originally as Roman citizen names, and usually assigned to people who started off as non-citizen families, I was actually trying to fit a background to a desired name sequence.

Some of the "Roman naming sites" on the internet are full of errors and made-up names, yet sometimes people actually quote them as proof that this or that name was used in antiquity.

For example: 'Fortis is a well-known cognomen', but how often is it actually used, and by which class of people? Is it used in conjunction with "Cornelia", or is it only used with certain gens, unless signifying a servile origin? When do you find it used with 'Fabricius' when it does not suggest an originally non-citizen original connection.

It's all very well to randomly pick and mix and match some Roman names or Roman-sounding names, but I feel much thought and research should go into a Roman name, especially if you plan to use it to describe yourself.