Year: 1968
Type: article
Abstract: The Problem hE ETYMOLOGY OF THE COGNOMINA among ancient Roman nobility is often difficult to trace.To take two well-known examples, Marcus Tullius Oicero and O. Julius Oaesar.In my Latin Oognomina, pp.89 and 119, I argued that Oicero derived from the noun cicer, "chickpea," the suffix -0 giving it the meaning "cultivator of chickpeas" and that Oaesar was an ancient praenomen, of uncertain etymology, which had subsequently become a cognomen.In that work I discussed only those cognomina which were of Latin origin, Le. formed from Latin appellatives, from the place names or the mythological names of the Romans, from nomina gentilicia, the clan names, etc.But anyone who consults, e.g., the index of T.R.S. Broughton's "The Magistrates of the Roman Republic," will find a considerable number of cognomina which were very likely non-Latin: Alimentus, cognomen of a praetor 210 B.C. and of a tribunus plebis 204 B.C.; Bala, a monetary officer ca.93/1 B.C., and an officer under Sex.Pompey; Blasio, a cognomen of several members of the Oornelii; Oentho, a cognomen of the Olaudii; Gracchus, a cognomen of the Sempronii, etc.I shall not treat here of all the non-Latin cognomina of the Roman nobility.The discussion of them would require a book.Instead I shall take up a cognomen which amply illustrates the difficulties encountered in interpreting names of that type, the cognomen Piso.The name is well-known to anyone acquainted with Roman history.It was the cognomen designating one branch of the famous clan of the Oalpurnii.The Realencyclopadie fur Altertumswissenschaft, 3, 1374ff., counts 64 members of the clan bearing this cognomen (Nos.57-100).The earliest Oalpurnii Pisones are documented from the era of the Hannibalic War: one urban praetor 211 B.C. (No. 61), and an officer from about the same time (No. 68).During the second century B.C., many Oalpurnii Pisones held consulships and other high offices,were prominent in the turbulent period of the break-up
Source: Names
Author: Iiro Kajanto
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2003114629