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Gaius Julius Caesar ( grc, ΓΑΙΟΣ ΙΟΥΛΙΟΣ ΚΑΙΣΑΡ) was a prominent name of the ''
Gens Julia The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain t ...
'' from
Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...
an times, borne by a number of figures, but most notably by the general and dictator Gaius Julius Caesar.


Julius Caesar's name

The name ''Caesar'' probably originated in Italy from a dialect of
Latium Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Definition Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil ( Old Latium) on w ...
which did not share the
rhotacism Rhotacism () or rhotacization is a sound change that converts one consonant (usually a voiced alveolar consonant: , , , or ) to a rhotic consonant in a certain environment. The most common may be of to . When a dialect or member of a language ...
of the Roman dialect. (That is, the ''s'' between vowels did not change to ''r''.) Using the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...
as it existed in the day of
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
(100 BC – 44 BC) (i.e., without lower case letters, "J", or "U"), Caesar's name is properly rendered GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR (the spelling CAIVS is also attested and is interchangeable with the more common GAIVS; however the letter C was used with its antique pronunciation of as it was an adaptation of Greek ''gamma''). It is often seen abbreviated to C. IVLIVS CÆSAR. (The letterform Æ is a ligature, which is often encountered in Latin inscriptions, where it was used to save space, and is nothing more than the letters "ae".) The leading vowels in each part of the name are long, and in Classical Latin, the whole name was pronounced , or, alternatively, with praenomen pronounced trisyllabically as . In Greek, during Caesar's time, his name was written , which was pronounced more or less the same. Roman nomenclature is somewhat different from the modern English form. ''Gaius'', ''
Iulius The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...
'', and ''
Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
'' are Caesar's
praenomen The ''praenomen'' (; plural: ''praenomina'') was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the bir ...
, nomen, and
cognomen A ''cognomen'' (; plural ''cognomina''; from ''con-'' "together with" and ''(g)nomen'' "name") was the third name of a citizen of ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. Initially, it was a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became here ...
, respectively. In modern English usage, his full name might be something like "Gaius Caesar of the Juliuses", where 'Caesar' denoted him as a member of the 'Caesarian' family branch of the 'Julius' clan or
gens Julia The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain t ...
in proper Latin, and 'Gaius' was his
personal name A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is kno ...
. Though contemporary writers sometimes referred to him as "Gaius Caesar," the name's historical usage was not the same as it is in the 21st century. Caesar's grand-nephew, Gaius Octavius Thurinus, duly took the full name "Gaius Julius Caesar" upon Caesar's posthumous adoption of him in 44 BC (while legally he should have been "Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus", and was/is called as such by contemporaries and historians, he himself never used either of his original surnames again), and the name of Caesar became fused with the
imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texas ...
dignity after Octavianus became the first Roman Emperor, Augustus; in this sense it is preserved in the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
and Bulgarian words ''
Kaiser ''Kaiser'' is the German word for "emperor" (female Kaiserin). In general, the German title in principle applies to rulers anywhere in the world above the rank of king (''König''). In English, the (untranslated) word ''Kaiser'' is mainly ap ...
'' and ''
Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...
'' (sometimes spelled ''Czar''), both of which refer to an emperor. Compare the Hungarian, Slavic and Turkish words for "king", forms of ''
kral Kral, Král or KRAL may refer to: *Kral (surname) *Král (surname) *Kráľ (surname) * Kráľ, a village in Slovakia * KRAL, an AM radio station licensed to Rawlins, Wyoming, U.S. * Riverside Municipal Airport, Riverside, California, United Stat ...
'', all adapted from ''Karl'', the personal name of
Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first E ...
. The name of the dictator Julius Caesar—Latin script: ''CAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR''—was often extended by the official filiation ''Gai filius'' ("son of Gaius"), rendered as ''Gaius Iulius Gai filius Caesar''. A longer version can also be found, however rarely: ''Gaius Iulius filius nepos Caesar'' ("Gaius Julius Caesar, son of Gaius, grandson of Gaius"). Caesar often spoke of himself only as ''Caius Caesar'', omitting the ''nomen gentile Iulius''. After his senatorial consecration as Divus Iulius in 42 BC, the ''dictator perpetuo'' bore the posthumous name ''Imperator Gaius Iulius Caesar Divus'' (IMP•C•IVLIVS•CAESAR•DIVVS, best translated as "Commander ndGod Gaius Julius Caesar"), which is mostly given as his official historical name. Suetonius also speaks of the additional cognomen ''Pater Patriae'', which would render Caesar's complete name as ''Imperator Gaius Iulius Caesar Pater Patriae Divus''.


The praenomen ''Gaius''

''Gaius'' is an archaic Latin name and one of the earliest Roman
praenomina The ''praenomen'' (; plural: ''praenomina'') was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birt ...
. Before the introduction of the letter 'G' into the
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...
, i.e. before the censorship of
Appius Claudius Caecus Appius Claudius Caecus ( 312–279 BC) was a statesman and writer from the Roman Republic. The first Roman public figure whose life can be traced with some historical certainty, Caecus was responsible for the building of Rome's first road (t ...
in 312 BC, the name was only written as ''Caius''. The old spelling remained valid in later times and existed alongside ''Gaius'', especially in the form of the abbreviation ''C''. The only known original Roman etymology of ''Gaius'' is expressed as ''a gaudio parentum'', meaning that the name ''Gaius'' stems from the Latin verb ''gaudere'' ("to rejoice", "to be glad"). This etymology is commonly seen as incorrect, and the origin of ''Gaius'' is often stated as still unknown. Some have linked the name to an unknown Etruscan phrase, others to the gentilician name '' Gavius'', which possibly might have lost the medial ''v'' in the course of time. But no supporting evidence has been found to this day.


The nomen ''Iulius''

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...
and his commentator Servius wrote that the ''
gens Iulia The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...
'' had received their name ''
Iulius The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...
'' from the family's common ancestor,
Aeneas In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (, ; from ) was a Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both being grandsons ...
' son
Ascanius Ascanius (; Ancient Greek: Ἀσκάνιος) (said to have reigned 1176-1138 BC) was a legendary king of Alba Longa and is the son of the Trojan hero Aeneas and Creusa, daughter of Priam. He is a character in Roman mythology, and has a divine ...
, who was also known under his cognomen ''Iulus'', which is a derivative of ''iulus'', meaning "wooly worm". Such nicknames were typical for ''cognomina'' and were the base of old gentilician names. By tracing their descent from Aeneas, the ''Iulii'' belonged to the so-called "
Trojan Trojan or Trojans may refer to: * Of or from the ancient city of Troy * Trojan language, the language of the historical Trojans Arts and entertainment Music * ''Les Troyens'' ('The Trojans'), an opera by Berlioz, premiered part 1863, part 189 ...
" families of Rome. Weinstock (1971) made a case for ''Iullus'' being a diminutive, i.e. juvenescent
theophoric name A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or God's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that dei ...
of ''Iovis'', which used to be one of the older names of the god
Iuppiter Jupiter ( la, Iūpiter or , from Proto-Italic "day, sky" + "father", thus " sky father" Greek: Δίας or Ζεύς), also known as Jove (gen. ''Iovis'' ), is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religion a ...
. Weinstock's argument however relies on a hypothetical intermediate form ''*Iovilus'', and he stated himself that Iullus can't originally have been a theophoric name and could therefore only have become one at a secondary stage, after the Julians had established the identification of Iulus as their gentilician god Vediovis (''also'': Veiovis), who was a "young Iuppiter" himself. Therefore, Alföldi (1975) is correct in rejecting this proposed etymological origin. Members of the Julian family later connected the name ''Iulus'' with ''ἰοβόλος'' ("the good archer") and ''ἴουλος'' ("the youth whose first beard is growing"). This has however no etymological value and is only a retrofitting interpretation concerned with the earlier institution of the Vediovis-cult in Rome together with a statue of Iulus-Vediovis as a (possibly bearded) archer. Others derived Iulius from King Ilus, who was the founder of Ilion (
Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...
). Weinstock called these the "usual playful etymologies of no consequence".


The cognomen ''Caesar''

In earlier times Caesar could originally have been a praenomen. The suffix ''–ar'' is highly unusual for Latin, but is a common suffix in the Sabine Oscan language. The etymology of the name ''Caesar'' is still unknown and was subject to many interpretations even in antiquity.
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
himself may have propagated the derivation from the
elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantida ...
, an animal that was said to have been called ''caesai'' in the "
Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or s ...
", i.e. probably
Punic language The Punic language, also called Phoenicio-Punic or Carthaginian, is an extinct variety of the Phoenician language, a Canaanite language of the Northwest Semitic branch of the Semitic languages. An offshoot of the Phoenician language of coastal ...
, thereby following the claims of his family that they inherited the cognomen from an ancestor, who had received the name after killing an elephant, possibly during the
first Punic War The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of Punic Wars, three wars fought between Roman Republic, Rome and Ancient Carthage, Carthage, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. For 23 years ...
. Since the
Gauls The Gauls ( la, Galli; grc, Γαλάται, ''Galátai'') were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). They sp ...
came to know the elephant through the Punic commander
Hannibal Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Pu ...
, it is possible that the animal was also known under the name ''caesar'' or in
Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...
. Caesar used the animal during his conquest of Gaul and probably of
Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
, which is further supported by the inclusion of forty elephants on the first day of Caesar's Gallic triumph in Rome. Caesar displayed an elephant above the name CAESAR on his first ''
denarius The denarius (, dēnāriī ) was the standard Roman silver coin from its introduction in the Second Punic War to the reign of Gordian III (AD 238–244), when it was gradually replaced by the antoninianus. It continued to be minted in very ...
'', which he probably had minted while still in
Gallia Cisalpina Cisalpine Gaul ( la, Gallia Cisalpina, also called ''Gallia Citerior'' or ''Gallia Togata'') was the part of Italy inhabited by Celts (Gauls) during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. After its conquest by the Roman Republic in the 200s BC it was con ...
. Apart from using the elephant as a claim for extraordinary political power in Rome, the coin is an unmasked allusion to this etymology of the name and directly identifies Caesar with the elephant, because the animal treads a Gallic serpent-horn, the ''
carnyx The ancient carnyx was a wind instrument of the Iron Age Celts, used between c. 200 BC and c. AD 200. It was a type of bronze trumpet with an elongated S shape, held so that the long straight central portion was vertical and the short mouthpiec ...
'', as a symbolic depiction of Caesar's own victory. Several other interpretations were propagated in antiquity, all of which remain highly doubtful: * ''a caesiis oculis'' ("because of the blue eyes"): Caesar's eyes were black, but since the despotic dictator
Sulla Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force. Sulla had t ...
had blue eyes, this interpretation might have been created as part of the anti-Caesarian propaganda in order to present Caesar as a tyrant. * ''a caesaries'' ("because of the hair"): Since Caesar was
balding Hair loss, also known as alopecia or baldness, refers to a loss of hair from part of the head or body. Typically at least the head is involved. The severity of hair loss can vary from a small area to the entire body. Inflammation or scarrin ...
, this interpretation might have been part of the anti-Caesarian mockery. * ''a caeso matris utero'' ("born by
Caesarean section Caesarean section, also known as C-section or caesarean delivery, is the surgical procedure by which one or more babies are delivered through an incision in the mother's abdomen, often performed because vaginal delivery would put the baby or m ...
"): In theory this might go back to an unknown Julian ancestor who was born in this way. On the other hand, it could also have been part of the anti-Caesarian propaganda, because in the eyes of the Republicans Caesar had defiled the Roman "motherland", which was also reported for one of Caesar's dreams, in which he committed incest with his mother, i.e. the earth. Another interpretation of ''Caesar'' deriving from the verb ''caedere'' ("to cut") could theoretically have originated in the argument of the Julians for receiving a
sodality In Christian theology, a sodality, also known as a syndiakonia, is a form of the "Universal Church" expressed in specialized, task-oriented form as opposed to the Christian church in its local, diocesan form (which is termed ''modality''). In Eng ...
of the
Lupercalia Lupercalia was a pastoral festival of Ancient Rome observed annually on February 15 to purify the city, promoting health and fertility. Lupercalia was also known as ''dies Februatus'', after the purification instruments called ''februa'', the ...
, the ''luperci Iulii'' (or ''Iuliani''). The praenomen ''Kaeso'' (or ''Caeso'') was best known from the
Quinctii The gens Quinctia, sometimes written Quintia, was a patrician family at ancient Rome. Throughout the history of the Republic, its members often held the highest offices of the state, and it produced some men of importance even during the imper ...
and the Fabii, possibly derived from their ritual duty of striking with the goat-skin (''februis caedere'') at the ''luperci Quinctiales'' and the ''luperci Fabiani'' respectively, the Julians would then have argued that the name ''Caesar'' was identical to the Quinctian and Fabian ''Kaeso''. The identification of the cognomina ''Kaeso'' and ''Caesar'' was indeed supposed by Pliny, but is—according to Alföldi (1975)—unwarranted.Andreas Alföldi: "Review of St. Weinstock, Divus Julius". In: ''Gnomon'' 47 (1975). 154–179.


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaius Iulius Caesar (Name)
Name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A persona ...
Ancient Roman names .