Names in the Early Roman Empire



Part 2 of the series about the evolution of personal names in ancient Rome. This video covers the period from the late Republic to the height of the Empire and explores how the naming conventions changes together with the Roman society and how the supreme power of the Roman Emperor was reflected in the name.

00:00 Intro
00:46 Aristocrats
03:54 Commoners
08:44 Multiplying Names
11:57 The First Citizen
16:59 Summary and Outro

Music:
Jonatan Järpehag – We The People
Jonatan Järpehag – Mediterranean
Jonatan Järpehag – Tyrrenum
Jonatan Järpehag – Caesarion
Jonatan Järpehag – Elegy

Footage:
Rome (2005) TV series by HBO
Gladiator (2000)

source

30 thoughts on “Names in the Early Roman Empire”

  1. It is pretty curious how the Julio-Claudian dynasty used a very limited number of names for its members (Drusus and Nero were the most used). In fact, Robert Graves had trouble writing about the family in "I, Claudius" while trying to not confuse the readers with the many characters of the same names

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  2. The newsreader guy of the HBO's show "Rome" was the absolute chad of the series (Julius Caesar and Octavian were absolute b*tches compared to him). Despite constantly changing his loyalty according to the news he was ordered to read, he not only survived all the conflicts until the end of the show, but also became more and more popular with the citizens. In fact, the IMDB page of the show lists him as one of the main characters despite not participating in the plot. With such badassey, it would not have been surprising at all to watch him preach the deposition of Romulus Augustulus by the Goths. What a LEGEND 😎💪

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  3. Isn't 'Divi Filius' in respect to Augustus simply his filiation though, rather than a part of his name?

    Fantastic content as always, been really looking forward to what I've always found a fascinating subject.

    Also, I had no idea about the practice of adopting the whole of the adoptive father's tria nomina with that of the birth father's amongst the nobility later on… fascinating!

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  4. Another weird thing you get with the Emperors, especially with the Adoptive Emperors and going into the Severan dynasty, is that there are several examples of somewhat dodgy adoption or filiation.

    So, Hadrian's adoption by Trajan was somewhat questionable, and was only confirmed after Trajan's death by his widow.

    Septimus Severus also got the Senate to declare him posthumously adopted by Marcus Aurelius, and erected numerous inscriptions describing himself as brother to Commodus, and son of Marcus Aurelius, then detailing his lineage by adoption all the way back to Nerva. This is also of course why Caracalla became styled officially 'Marcus Aurelius Antoninus'.

    Continuing on with the dodgy filiations, we have Elagabalus' mother claiming he was in fact the illegitimate son of Caracalla, something that the Senate was able to officially declare true, and is why Elagabalus also had the exact same names as Marcus Aurelius and Caracalla.

    And of course, Elagabalus himself adopted his cousin Severus Alexander.

    So, we have a partly legitimate, partly questionable official lineage that we can trace from the Emperor Nerva all the way to Severus Alexander.

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  5. In respect to adoption and the names of the Emperors, it's worth noting that, starting with the adoptive Emperors, the original Roman onomastic practice of retaining the original nomen of the adoptee as an agnomen, but as a diminutive (like with 'Octavius' becoming 'Octavianus') has been completely abandoned: in nearly all cases, they just tack the cognomen of their adoptive father and predecessor in front of their own cognomen.

    What I mean is, Trajan didn't become 'Marcus Coeccius Nerva Ulpianus', Hadrian isn't 'Aelianus', Antoninus Pius didn't become 'Aurelianus' (although he did somewhat inexplicably have Hadrian's nomen of 'Aelius'), nor Marcus Aurelius 'Annianus'.

    Indeed, by the time you get to Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, any semblance of a system seem to break down.

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  6. It's sad…people in general slaughter Latin in the way it should spoken.
    The same is done to the German Language by English Speakers trying to formulate German into English syntaxes. I cringe every time I hear Latin and German names spoken into English! Errrgghh!

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