Barry Popik namecheck

[sagehen]

on 4/7/08 10:44 AM, Barbara Need at nee1 at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU wrote:

> Actually Octavius was a nomen (the gens, or family, name) rather than
> a prenomen (given name), such as Quintus. Females were
> unimaginatively named with the feminine form of the nomen followed by
> the genitive of the cognomen (sub-family--and possibly words to
> indicate birth order: major, minor, tertia, etc.), though not all
> families had a cognomen (e.g., the Antonii). Some people had a fourth
> name, often some kind of nickname based on the individual (e.g.,
> Creticus for someone who "conquered" Crete). Octavius may have it
> roots in the word for 'eight', but if so it is really old. The form
> Octavian comes from the fact the he was adopted by Gaius Julius
> Caeser and so was subsequently known as Gaius Julius Caeser
> Octavianus (though the Gaius here was his own prenomen: Gaius
> Octavius Thurinus).  Some adoptees took the full name of their father
> (e.g., Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica, born Publius
> Cornelius Scipio Nascia).
>
> Can you tell I have been reading too many mysteries set in the late
> Roman republic?
>
> Barbara
>
> Barbara Need
> UChicago
>
> P.S. IXX? What century does that represent?
>
> On 6 Apr 2008, at 14:53, sagehen wrote:
>> on 4/5/08 1:21 PM, Wilson Gray at hwgray at GMAIL.COM wrote:
>>
>>> The ancient Romans used a variation of this naming method. No doubt
>>> everyone here recalls Quintus, i.e. "Fifth," Tullius Cicero, one of
>>> Caesar's generals and Marcus Tullius Cicero's younger brother. The
>>> Romans had no names for women at all, only feminine ordinal numerals
>>> and their nicknominal and diminutive variants, for example,
>>> "Priscilla," a nickname based on "Prima," i.e. "First (Daughter)."
>>>
>>> -Wilson
>> ~~~~~~~~~~
>> There are quite a few Octaviuses (Octavii?) & Octavias in my family
>> tree.  I
>> doubt if they were all eighth-born, though the IXX Cent families in
>> which
>> they appeared  did tend to have big broods. (There is also a
>> Tullius Cicero
>> -- no ordinal in evidence -- mentioned in the same genealogy). My
>> grandfather's uncle, Octavius Decatur Gass, seems to have owned a
>> lot of
>> what later became Las Vegas. I haven't seen it, but I understand
>> there is a
>> large sign ("Welcome to GASS Station") somewhere on the strip, put
>> up by the
>> local historical society.
>> AM
>>
I seem  have goofed a number of things in my posts on this thread.  mam got
back to me about the IXX Cent , which I acknowledged backchannel. I'm
probably just giddy with the lovely spring days cruel April has been
fooling us with lately.  If sobriety means a return to winter, I think I'll
take giddiness.
AM

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