[Ads-l] Early QOTY candidate

[Baker, John]

Gaius Julius Caesar was not the first of that name, so we know that the family did not get the name due to his being born by Caesarean section.

The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (vol. I, p. 236) says this of the cognomen Caesar:


It is uncertain which member of the Julia gens first obtained the surname of Caesar, but the first who occurs in history is Sextus Julius Caesar, praetor in BC 208. The origin of the name is equally uncertain. Spartianus, in his life of Aelius Verus, mentions four different opinions respecting its origin:
1.That the word signified an elephant in the language of the Moors, and was given as a surname to one of the Julii because he had killed an elephant.
2.That it was given to one of the Julii because he had been cut (caesus) out of his mother's womb after her death; or
3.Because he had been born with a great quantity of hair (caesaries) on his head; or
4.Because he had azure-colored (caesii) eyes of an almost supernatural kind.

Of these opinions the third, which is also given by Festus, seems to come nearest the truth. Caesar and caesaries are both probably connected with the Sanskrit kêsa, "hair", and it is quite in accordance with the Roman custom for a surname to be given to an individual from some peculiarity in his personal appearance. The second opinion, which seems to have been the most popular one with the ancient writers, arose without doubt from a false etymology. With respect to the first, which was the one adopted, says Spartianus, by the most learned men, it is impossible to disprove it absolutely, as we know next to nothing of the ancient Moorish language; but it has no inherent probability in it; and the statement of Servius is undoubtedly false, that the grandfather of the dictator obtained the surname on account of killing an elephant with his own hand in Africa, as there were several of the Julii with this name before his time.


John Baker


From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Laurence Horn
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2018 4:18 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Early QOTY candidate

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> On Jan 22, 2018, at 4:01 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM<mailto:hwgray at GMAIL.COM>> wrote:
>
[LH:]
>> Maybe Trump's speechwriter had just come from a production of the
> Scottish play, where Macbeth, having been assured by the witches' prophecy
>> that no man of woman born can defeat him, unfortunately encounters
> Macduff, who was "from his mother's womb / Untimely ripped”.
> [WG:]
> Youneverknow. But, clearly, Scotland had some hella good obstetric
> surgeons, in those days.

I wonder if they were good enough to save Macduff’s mom during the procedure (and I also wonder why “untimely”—too early? too late?). As I understand it, until relatively recently the mother did not survive a Caesarean section, and that that’s how we know it wasn’t named for Julius Caesar, since his mother (Calpurnia?) was around afterward to raise Julius. The OED begs to differ on this, glossing Caesarian birth/section/operation as follows:

'delivery of a child by cutting through the walls of the abdomen when delivery cannot take place in the natural way, as was done in the case of Julius Cæsar’

—without so much as a hedge. Can any of our etymology and/or classical history mavens clarify the point?

LH
>


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