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Guest Decimus Vipsanius Silanus

The Cognomen

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Guest Decimus Vipsanius Silanus

Hey. I've been looking on google for a page that would have a decent english translation for alot of the roman cognomens. So fair all i can find are the popular ones such as caesar ( hairy) brutus ( stupid) Magnus ( great) and so forth. Im particulary interested in what Sulla means. Can anyone help me out.

 

{edited out a line that was completely inappropriate=PP}

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Hey. I've been looking on google for a page that would have a decent english translation for alot of the roman cognomens. So fair all i can find are the popular ones such as caesar ( hairy) brutus ( stupid) Magnus ( great) and so forth. Im particulary interested in what Sulla means. Can anyone help me out.

 

if your female i will repay the favour with cunnilingus.

 

I might be extremely wrong, but Sulla or inaccurate Sylla means red for his very red skin.

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I think it might originally been for Red hair, but yes, once Sulla's skin developed the angry red blotches, the name took on a whole new meaning

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Guest Decimus Vipsanius Silanus

Ah of cause the red splotches. I remember in the master of rome series colleen often refeering to sulla's "fabled good looks" which were then destroyed apon his return after the mithridatic war, the red splotches being one characteristic.

I've read plutarch and various other ancient writings on Sulla, but none mention this disintegration in his appearance? was it a fabrication of McCullough, Or is there evidence to support it?

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I've read plutarch and various other ancient writings on Sulla, but none mention this disintegration in his appearance? was it a fabrication of McCullough, Or is there evidence to support it?

 

Perhaps you should read Plutarch - Life of Sulla (2) again :-

 

"His personal appearance, in general, is given by his statues; but the gleam of his gray eyes, which was terribly sharp and powerful, was rendered even more fearful by the complexion of his face. This was covered with coarse blotches of red, interspersed with white. For this reason, they say, his surname was given him because of his complexion, and it was in allusion to this that a scurrilous jester at Athens made the verse:

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Hey. I've been looking on google for a page that would have a decent english translation for alot of the roman cognomens. So fair all i can find are the popular ones such as caesar ( hairy)

 

I've also come across the fact that Caesar was derived from him being born of a 'Caesarian Section'...

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I've also come across the fact that Caesar was derived from him being born of a 'Caesarian Section'...

Here's what wikipedia says about that.

"According to legend, Caesar was born by Caesarian section and is its namesake, though this is unlikely because at the time it was only performed on dead women, and his mother lived long after he was born. This legend is more likely a modern invention, as the origin of the Caesarian section is in the Latin word for to cut, caedo, -ere, caesus sum."

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I've also come across the fact that Caesar was derived from him being born of a 'Caesarian Section'...

 

You can rest assured that there is no truth whatsoever in that. The name Caesar was in the family long before the birth of Gaius Julius (the dictator) and the Caesarean section was used only in cases where the mother had already died or was dying, essentially a last ditch effort to save the baby. Since Caesar's mother, Aurelia, survived well into old age (at least through part of Caesar's Gallic Wars) the notion that she gave birth via that option is simply impossible. The mother did not survive such a procedure.

 

While nobody seems to know the true origin of the word, some have suggested that its root is actually in other Latin words such as 'caedare' which means to cut and and/or 'caesones' which described infants who were born after the mother's death (postmortem). It seems that the term Caesarean section was applied to Caesar the man much later in history (middle ages), long after the true origin was lost.

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While nobody seems to know the true origin of the word

 

I can't find any trace of it now but I seem to remember some TV special years ago that claimed it was because one of the Judio-Claudian Emperors had their child cut out of the not so dying mother... B)

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