Maybe the Romans should have numbered their sons like they did their daughters

[u/pretty-as-a-pic]

[u/NotABrummie]

They absolutely did. After the first four were named after relatives, they got Quintus, Sextus, Septimus, Octavius, etc.

[u/Arm_Away → u/NotABrummie]

Hi I’m Liv

[u/NotABrummie → u/Arm_Away]

Catholic family?

[u/Arm_Away → u/NotABrummie]

I don’t get it

[u/NotABrummie → u/Arm_Away]

Catholics (due to their historical aversion to profilactics) are stereotypically associated with large families. LIV is 54 in Roman numerals.

[u/Arm_Away → u/NotABrummie]

Ah, I knew the LIV part, I just didn’t know that about catholics

[u/TheChartreuseKnight → u/NotABrummie]

Do you mean prophylactics?

[u/AlexDavid1605 → u/NotABrummie]

Can attest to that. My father had 9 other siblings. My late grandmother on my mum's side had 7 other siblings. Both sides of my family are complete catholics. The exceptions are obviously there, like my mum has 2 siblings, my late paternal grandmother has 1 sibling. My late paternal grandfather had 2 siblings, while my maternal grandfather was the sole kid.

Just on my father's side we are 22 cousins.

[u/NotABrummie → u/AlexDavid1605]

Tbh, while it's a catholic stereotype, it's not uncommon. My grandfather (an Anglican) was one of seven, his father was one of nine.

[u/Doneifundone → u/NotABrummie]

I watched a video about this earlier god I really live in a simulation

[u/NotABrummie → u/Doneifundone]

Large Language Model not accessible at this time. Please try again later.

[u/2flyingjellyfish → u/Doneifundone]

the rest of us are in the real world it's just you in the simulation. it's a really accurate simulation

[u/Doneifundone → u/2flyingjellyfish]

Thank you. I hope they send you in next

[u/WordArt2007 → u/NotABrummie]

Quintus, Sextus, Septimus and Octavius, as well as Marcus, were named after their birth months i think. Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, and March respectively.

[u/NotABrummie → u/WordArt2007]

Roman parents didn't have that much choice in naming their kids, due to strict traditions. They'd start with the father, then the grandfathers, then sometimes an uncle, then they'd move on to numbering them. Same but opposite for daughters. That's why most Romans went by a nickname - too many people called the same thing.

[u/IllConstruction3450 → u/NotABrummie]

Huh, us Jew retained this system but there’s a difference between one tradition that names a child after a living family member or those who do from a dead family member.

[u/Correctedsun → u/WordArt2007]

What is Biggus in Latin?

[u/WordArt2007 → u/Correctedsun]

Huh?

[u/commie-femboy → u/WordArt2007]

Monty Python joke, look up "Monty python biggus dickus" scene if you want context

[u/dxpqxb → u/NotABrummie]

That's not numbers, that's their birth months. There was a really good r/AskHistorians thread on this question.

[u/BlatantConservative]

Yall aren't even getting to how they did twins dirty.

Loquax and Anti-Loquax.

They'd name kids, essentially, "Billy" and "Not-Billy"

[u/demon_fae → u/BlatantConservative]

1. Some of Old Bill’s early work makes slightly more sense now, much appreciated

2. I wonder how often the parents were sitting there like “damn, bet on the wrong kid” when the anti-twin was more successful?

[u/TheChartreuseKnight → u/BlatantConservative]

Ten bucks says you read the Cambridge Latin textbooks.

[u/BlatantConservative → u/TheChartreuseKnight]

No, Ecci Romani, but I appreciate that there's more than one textbook series that kills off the entire cast.

[u/OneWholeSoul → u/BlatantConservative]

Ecci Romani

In 7th grade, on a test, one of my friends translated something like "let's sneak out to the fields, Flavia, where we won't be overheard," to "come with me to the fields, Flavia, where no one will hear you scream."

Also, I think at some point a statue got knocked by an ignorant wolf?

[u/TheChartreuseKnight → u/BlatantConservative]

I think it’s probably all of them lol

[u/WordArt2007 → u/BlatantConservative]

Except loquax means talkative which is even worse

[u/ProbablyNano]

I thought this was an incest joke and first got really confused trying to untangle that family tree in the first post

[u/Critical_Ad_8455 → u/ProbablyNano]

If the dad is your father in law, it works, or if he's your half brother, then it works.

[u/Yeah-But-Ironically]

The post title is a joke, right? Because Octavius is right there

[u/EverGreen2004 → u/Yeah-But-Ironically]

I think OP meant it as Octavius I, Octavius II, Octavius II etc. rather than having a name based on a number, bc that's how they named girls iirc. One name for all the sisters, whereas their brothers get individual names.

[u/Galle_ → u/EverGreen2004]

It's not that the girls all had the same name, it's that they literally did not have personal names, just a family name.

[u/Yeah-But-Ironically → u/EverGreen2004]

Octavius literally means "eighth". One of the most famous emperors in Roman history had a number for a name.

(Quintus, Sextus, Septimus, Nonus, and Decimus were also among the most common names given to male children--"fifth", "sixth", "seventh", "ninth", "tenth". Naming your kids after numbers was extremely popular for both genders.)

[u/Opposing_Singularity → u/Yeah-But-Ironically]

Again, you've missed the point. The girls were all given the exact same name, and then numbered from there. The boys were given seperate names, though those names might also be numbers themselves. So you would have 3 daughters (Augustina I, II, and III), and two sons (Octavius and Septimus)

[u/OpenStraightElephant]

This is how it feels being called Alexander in Russia
You can't stretch your arms without hitting an Alexander or Alexandra goddamn

[u/pretty-as-a-pic → u/OpenStraightElephant]

I always think of this scene from My Big Fat Greek Wedding

[u/ShiftyFly → u/OpenStraightElephant]

Fun fact! The Greek Αλέξανδρος (Alexander) can mean either 'defender of men' or 'repugnant to men' (according to Wiktionary)

[u/breadstick_bitch → u/ShiftyFly]

Not really. Αλεξω (the "Alex" part of Alexander) means "to defend" or "to ward off" in the sense of protection, like warding off danger. It would be warding off things from the men, not warding off the men themselves.

[u/ShiftyFly → u/breadstick_bitch]

The translation that Wiktionary gives for Alexander is "the man who repels [enemies]" so I suppose from that "the repulsive man" would be a valid translation but I concur that αλεξω does have more positive connotations of defense

[u/breadstick_bitch → u/ShiftyFly]

When you're translating you have to take connotation into account. I'm also not sure why you're arguing this when you have no actual knowledge of the subject and are getting all of your information off of a wiki.

[u/ShiftyFly → u/breadstick_bitch]

More of my knowledge is about latin, I have just been learning a bit of Greek. Also I find Wiktionary to be a very good source that fulfils all the roles of a greek-english dictionary

[u/CameronFrog]

i knew someone who was named after her mother and then ended up marrying someone with the same name as her father.

[u/TDoMarmalade]

…they did. Augustus’ name was Octavius, meaning eighth

[u/TheChartreuseKnight]

The tag is an intentional misspelling of “How much further, Catilina, will you carry your abuse of our forbearance?”, for those interested. It’s the first line of In Catilinam by Marcus Tullius Cicero.

[u/he77bender]

At first when she said "thanks for being a Gaius" I thought it was a joke about 'Gaius' being the ancient Roman version of 'Chad' lmao

[u/chatttheleaper]

Fortunately the medieval Romans don't have this problem, right Nikephoros?

[u/Uberguuy]

The daughters didn't get numbers. They didn't even get first names. Julius Caesar's full name is Gaius Julius Caesar. His sister? Julia Caesar.

[u/pretty-as-a-pic → u/Uberguuy]

They numbered them if there were multiple- if he’d had another sister, she’d be “Julia 2”

[u/Uberguuy → u/pretty-as-a-pic]

Ah yeah, Julia Secunda. There weren't any Quinta Julia Caesars running around