Roman Names

Ancient Roman names are tongue-twisters for most of us, so here is a little help with them.

Roman men typically had either two or three names: first name (e.g. Gaius or Lucius), family name (e.g. Julius or Cornelius), and often a cognomen, really a nickname that stuck, sometimes to a whole family. Gaius Julius Caesar’s family all used the cognomen Caesar, which meant “long or flowing haired.”

In the book, I’ve tried to call each character something that distinguishes him somewhat from others, especially others with the same name—sons were typically named after their fathers, so Gaius Julius Caesar’s son might be Gaius Julius Caesar as well, generation after generation. Where I have more than one character with the same, or similar, names, I’ve tried to pick a part of the name for each that distinguishes them. Thus one of my main characters is Publius Cornelius Scipio, whom I call simply Scipio, to distinguish him from his father, also Publius Cornelius Scipio, whom I call Publius Scipio. One more wrinkle: in dialog, I usually follow Roman custom, which was to use the first and family names, e.g. Gaius Julius or Publius Cornelius. I try to make dialog the only time I deviate from the name you’ve become familiar with. I call him Scipio, but people often address him as “Publius Cornelius” (just as they do his father).

Daughters’ names were always based on the father’s family, or gens, name. A daughter of any man surnamed Cornelius was Cornelia; a daughter of a Claudius was Claudia. If a Cornelius had more than one daughter, they were all Cornelias: Cornelia Major and Cornelia Minor if only two, Cornelia Prima, Cornelia Secunda, Cornelia Tertia, and so on if more than two.

List of characters in the book, with pronunciations

Other Ancient Names

Carthaginian, Gallic, and other ancient names also cause confusion. I’ve tried to reduce the clutter of Hannibals, Hasdrubals, and Hannos from Carthage, but they’re everywhere—at least three characters are named Hasdrubal, for instance. I try to label them: Hasdrubal Barca vs. Hasdrubal the Handsome vs. Hasdrubal Gisgo, and the like. My aim is to be as gentle to you in this regard as possible. I use only a few names of Gauls, and these are pretty straightforward: Vendorix = ven'-dor-ix.

Pronouncing Classical Latin

Pronunciation isn’t easy, especially for Roman names, but here are a few guidelines (per the Oxford Dictionary of Latin Words and Phrases, Oxford 1998). Classical Latin, presented here, differs from Church Latin, which has evolved from the original Classical Latin because it continues to be used today.

1. C and G are always hard, as in cat and girl (Lucius is Loo-kee-us, not Loo-shuss), but Gn, as in Gnaeus, is like pronouncing it Ngnaeus (or simply Ny-us).

2. V is always pronounced as w (virilis is wirilis).

3. Ae is pronounced ‘eye’, not ‘ee’ or ‘ay’. Au as the ow in how. Ei as the ei in eight. Eu as e-u (eh-oo). Oe as the oy in boy. Ui as u-i (oo-ee).

4. Ch is k, not ch (Pulcher is Pull-ker, not Pull-cher).

5. Latin had no j, but it’s become customary to pronounce ‘Julius’ with the j rather than ‘Yoo-lee-us,’ spelled Iulius, as people in ancient Rome did.

6. Latin vowels are: short a as in cup (not cap); long a as in father; short e as in pet; long e as the ai in aim; short i as in dip; long i as the ee in deep; short o as in pot; long o as the oa in foal; short u as in put; long u as the oo in fool.

Usually emphasize the next-to-last syllable (or sometimes the one before that): Aemilia is Eye-mil'-ya. Lucius is Loó-kee-us. Combined vowels (diphtongs) act as one: ae, eu, etc., so Julius is not Joo-lée-us but Jóol-yus.

In any case, just have fun. Find something to cling to for each character. When in doubt do something that works for you, and feel free to hum or tap dance instead of pronouncing.

List of characters in the book, with pronunciations