ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2240 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2240 ************************************ 2 Feb 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a man in classical Rome. This letter is a brief answer to your question. You've chosen a fine name. As you noted, the list of names of consuls of Rome includes many examples of the praenomen plus several examples of the nomen and the cognomen , all in use throughout your period. In particular [1]: Gaius Aelius Paetus 286 BC Publius Aelius Paetus 201 BC Sextus Aelius Paetus 198 BC Publius Aelius Ligus 172 BC Quintus Aelius Paetus 167 BC Quintus Aelius Tubero 11 BC Lucius Aelius Sejanus 31 AD Marcus Valerius Maximus Corvus 300 BC Gnaeus Fulvius Maximus Centumalus 298 BC Africanus Fabius Maximus 10 AD We also found examples of each element among people other than officers of the Roman state [2]. Through most of your period, your name would have been pronounced \GEY-oos EY-lee-oos MAHKS-ee-moos\, where \EY\ represents the sound of the word , \ee\ is a short sound, almost \ih\, and \oo\ stands for the vowel in . By the end of your period, the initial sound in simplified from \EY\ to \EH\ (as in ) in at least some dialects. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 2 Feb 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Fox, Clifton R., "Ordinary Consuls of the Roman Republic and Empire 300 BC -- 68 AD" (WWW: privately published, 1998; visited 2 Feb 2001). http://wwwtc.nhmccd.cc.tx.us/people/crf01/rome/ [2] Solin, Heikki & Olli Salomies, _Repertorium Nominum Gentilium et Cognominum Latinorum_ (Hildesheim: Olms-Weidmann, 1988).