Roman Onomastics: The Origin and Development of the Tria Nomina System, LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2024, 252 p. (in Russian) (original) (raw)
Related papers
M. Nowak, A Łajtar, J. Urbanik (eds.), Tell Me Who You Are: Labelling Status in the Graeco-Roman World (U SCHYŁKU STAROZYTNOSCI STUDIA ZRÓDŁOZNAWCZE, 16), Warsaw, 2017
This paper investigates the use of maternal names in the Roman world, in particular cases where the maternal nomenclature was deliberately preferred over the paternal one. In the typical scenario Roman children, as a rule, would automatically receive their father’s nomen. Sometimes, however, one encounters cases where they bear the maternal name instead. The reason was often of legal nature, as illegitimate children, for instance, would take their status — and subsequently their name — after their mother. Adoption, manumission, and other such legal reasons could also dictate the choice of the name. In some cases, however, it seems that children born of a legal union were voluntarily named after the maternal branch of the family — sometimes with no traces of the paternal nomenclature apart from the filiation. Such cases are mainly found in the senatorial class, where social and political prestige played an important role in this respect. Furthermore, the phenomenon of completely abandoning the paternal nomenclature in favour of the maternal seems to have primarily pertained to women. The first part of the survey briefly tackles the legal reasons, in other words cases where there was no other choice than the using of the maternal nomen. After this, the discussion proceeds to the voluntary favouring of the maternal nomenclature. Here several illustrative samples from the senatorial ordo are presented and discussed in detail. The final part of the survey explores the possibility of such onomastic practices outside the senatorial class. Here some possible, yet sporadic evidence representing provincial elite is discussed.
Myles Lavan & Clifford Ando (OUP) Roman and Local Citizenship in the Long Second Century CE, 2021
Names are fundamental for assessing the spread of Roman citizenship in the Empire. The eastern provinces during the long 2nd century AD saw an increase in the number of Greek-speaking individuals enfranchised; rhetors, athletes, soldiers and even procurators. My paper seeks to study both the ways in which Roman nomenclature was locally adopted by the new citizens and how socially significant the display of their names might be in the epigraphic and literary materials of the period. Instead of using onomastics as an index of status to be instrumentalised by historians, I propose to analyse this phenomenon as a cultural practice that is accommodated to different contexts and helps to illuminate what citizenship meant to some of those who possessed it.
Eos, 2020
In this article, the second in a series devoted to the office of the military tribune in the senatorial cursus honorum in the Severan period, the following findings are presented: (1) in the group of 123 military tribunes from the Severan period who subsequently became senators, special distinctions (dona militaria, adlectio, commendatio) were awarded to 49 people (approx. 40%); (2) dona militaria were granted to 8 of them; most people from this group are attested as homines novi and came from the provinces; (3) the gradual disappearance of references to dona in the source material may be the result of the intentional damage of inscriptions relating to emperors as award givers (e.g., due to the damnatio memoriae) or a change in the character of these distinctions (financial rewards replacing the traditional dona); (4) dona did not have any greater impact on the subsequent adlectio or commendatio; they did not become a part of the senatorial mode of promotion; (5) we know of 23 former tribunes who were adlected among the former magistrates; homines novi and provincials were the most numerous among them; (6) we know of 28 former tribunes who became candidati Augusti for magistracies; representatives of gentes senatoriae and residents of Italy were the most numerous among them; (7) candidati were people from the senatorial order, whereas adlecti were people from various orders; (8) in the group of 49 senators with special distinctions that was analysed, those distinguished once and twice dominate.
Stray notes on roman names in Greek documents
Μελετήματα, 21, 2008
Three notes on the interpretation of some Roman name forms in Greek documents are assembled here. First, the function and significance of the "Spurii filiation", i.e. the addition of "Spurii filius (sp. f.) = Σπο(υ)ρίου υίός" in names of children produced from an iniustum matrimonium is examined on the basis of an inscription from Lesbos (IG XII 2.382-383) and other documents. The second note concerns the use of certain abbreviation forms for the usual filiation with the father's praenomen in Roman names as they appear in Greek inscriptions from Lesbos. Finally, the possible connection of Roman names including both the praenomen Marcus and the gentilicium Aurelius (Marci Aurelii) not only with grants of citizenship under Marcus Aurelius and Commodus but also with the Constitutio Antoniniana is reasserted against some recent views (cf. SEG 39 [ 1989] 1858) and supported with further evidence from Greek documents.
The variating presentations of Roman names in Greek primary sources reflect the depth of the Roman cultural impact on Greek-speaking communities. However, this variation also may render it more difficult – and sometimes impossible – to firmly establish the social standing of the Roman citizens in these records. This article explores problems related to this through ten selected name catalogues from the early imperial period. Geographically the catalogues range from Magna Graecia to Western Asia Minor, and they differ from each other in social context and purpose. In some catalogues certain patterns seem to emerge in the use of cognomina, praenomina or genitive attributes, or the hierarchical nature of a catalogue may facilitate interpretation; however, in many cases the lacking evidence leaves the social standing of some persons ambiguous or unknown.