Latin, victory wreaths, Mus & Scipio Africanus format

[AntonivsMarivsCongianocvs]

Salve,

If I wanted to refer victory to both an elder and younger Roman hero together, such as Publius Decius Mus… would the correct way in Latin be [b]“VICT MUS S Iâ€

[Memmia]

[quote]would the correct way in Latin be “VICT MUS S Iâ€

[L C Cinna]

Well, about the abbreviations:

there is the short version for the title Augustus, which would be AVG like in your example (or AVGG for plural) but the Romans wouldn't shorten names. So if you talk about Gaius Marius or Julius Caesar you would have to write CAESAR VICT. and MARIVS. You can't shorten them. Same goes for Scipio Africanus. He would be Victor Cornelius Scipio and then you can add his title Africanus (Afr. is surely wrong) I've never seen this title shortened as it doesn't appear anymore when such titles were more common on inscriptions like Parth. for Parthicus for example, my best guess would be Afric. if you'd insist on shortening it.

About Mus:

you'd mention both or add another title if they had one to distinguish them. If they are father and son a more probable way would be Publius Decius Mus et Publius Decius Mus P.f.

[AntonivsMarivsCongianocvs]

Salve,

Thanks for the help but please allow me to clarify, the shortened abbreviations, such as those that appear on statues, wreaths, and ancient coins was really what I was looking to use on my motif.

For example, on coins of Mark Antony, the moneyer would not write his name "MARCVS ANTONUVS" instead it would be abbreviated as "ANT" such as "ANT AVGVR III VIR R P C" on a coin with the bare head of Antony.

Or a Tiberius coin would abbreviate his name as "TI" such as "TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVST P M TR POT XXXVII" (the "DIVI AVG" part would mean Divine Augustus, I'm not sure of the other letters meanings in all honesty)

Or a coin of Caligula would abbreviate his real name "Caius Germanicus" as "GERM" as in "C CAESAR AVG GERM PMTRPOT"

Obviously, they wrote out the whole names more often than not though.

Like "LEG" for Legion or when they carried the standard of Mimio on HBO's Rome, it was abbreviated as "MIM" before Pullo bit out his tongue! (I know, not the best example but, it's 3:30AM in NY and I'm getting tired! LOL!.... I'm waiting for the cold wielding on my attic helmet to set so I can add more to the wreaths on the back.)

[L C Cinna]

Salve,
Or a Tiberius coin would abbreviate his name as "TI" such as "TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVST P M TR POT XXXVII" (the "DIVI AVG" part would mean Divine Augustus, I'm not sure of the other letters meanings in all honesty)

Well, of course names were shortened in that way but you can't shorten everything.

The Inscription is read :
Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, holds the Tribunitia Potestas for the 37th time.

Tiberius(TI, praenomen always shortened)
Caesar (Caesar is part of the name here and not a title that's why it's not shortened)

Augustus (AVGVST. at this time not really established as a fixed title for EVERY emperor and therefore not shortened except for the -us ending because it's part of his name)

DIVI AVG F = divi Augusti filius

Or a coin of Caligula would abbreviate his real name "Caius Germanicus" as "GERM" as in "C CAESAR AVG GERM PMTRPOT"

Here we have the same praenomen Caius shortened as usual, Caesar is the important part of his name and therefore not shortened, Augustus already appears as a title here and is therefore short, Germanicus is part of the name but used to be a title as well and can be shortened without a problem. pontifex maximus tribunitia potestate is a standard phrase again.

Obviously, they wrote out the whole names more often than not though.

You have to be able to understand who is meant by this. Caesar wrote the whole name Caesar on his coins, in the later period we have CAES. because it's a title. You can however leave the ending like in your example with AVGVST or on a coin of Claudius were you find CLAVD, or Vespasian as on a coin of Vespasianus.There is no real RULE somewhere but it would be strange to shorten the whole name, the important part should always be complete.


Which timeperiod do you want to represent?[/quote]

[AntonivsMarivsCongianocvs]

Salve,

The time period I’m looking to represent is very late Republic to very Early Empire …. Perhaps 60 BC to 10 BC.

The reason for looking for a short abbreviation is really due to space, I would presume that a moneyer could have written out everyone’s full name if there was enough space to due so.

I already completed the VICT MAR and VICT CAE in small victory wreaths (similar to the VICT AVG victory wreath) on the visor. It had to due with space, how many letters I could fit, and basing my design on the Augustus example.

I was thinking of stringing together eight wreaths, with four on each side, on my helmet’s crest also. There is really no possible way to write their full names or aside from Mus, even the important part of the names.

I still have a few other ideas as well... the victory wreaths was just one of them but, I was uncertain about the Elder and junior abbreviations.

I'm still not sure how I'll do the crest yet though.