Volesus, Volusus, or Volero is a Latin

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 bi ...

, or

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 known ...

, which was occasionally used during the period of the

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 Kin ...

, and briefly revived in imperial times. It gave rise to the patronymic gentes Valeria and

Volusia Volusia County (, ) is located in the east-central part of the U.S. state of Florida, stretching between the St. Johns River and the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2020 census, the county was home to 553,543 people, an increase of 11.9% from the 2 ...

. Although not attested from inscriptions, the feminine form would have been ''Volesa'' or ''Volusa''. Unlike the more common praenomina, which were usually abbreviated, this name was regularly spelled out, but is also found abbreviated Vol.''Dictionary of Greek & Roman Biography & Mythology'', vol. III, p. 1283 (" Volusus or Volesus"). The praenomen Volesus, also spelled ''Volusus'', and perhaps also ''Valesus'', is best known from

Volesus :''This page is about the ancestor of the Valerii. For the Latin personal name, see Volesus (praenomen).'' Volesus or Volusus, sometimes called Volesus Valerius, was the eponymous ancestor of '' gens Valeria'', one of the greatest patrician houses ...

, the founder of gens Valeria, who was said to have come to Rome with

Titus Tatius According to the Roman foundation myth, Titus Tatius was the king of the Sabines from Cures and joint-ruler of the Kingdom of Rome for several years. During the reign of Romulus, the first king of Rome, Tatius declared war on Rome in respon ...

, king of the

Sabine The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divide ...

town of Cures, during the reign of

Romulus Romulus () was the legendary foundation of Rome, founder and King of Rome, first king of Ancient Rome, Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus ...

. The name was used by the early Valerii, first as praenomen, then as cognomen; ''Volusus'' was occasionally revived by that great

patrician Patrician may refer to: * Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage * Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...

house, which used it as late as the first century AD. The form ''Volero'' was used by the plebeian gens Publilia. The name must have been used by the ancestors of the gens Volusia, whose nomen was derived from ''Volusus'', and perhaps also by the Condetii and Vecilii, who used ''Volesus'' as a cognomen.Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina".

Origin and meaning

Volesus may originally have been an Oscan praenomen that came to Rome with the founder of the Valerii. However, the name could also belong to a class of praenomina that was common to both

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the 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 the power of the ...

and

Oscan Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian. Oscan was spoken by a number of tribes, including th ...

. It was used by the Latin Publilii, and treated as a Latin name by the scholar

Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...

, who listed it amongst several antique praenomina, no longer in general use during the first century BC.Varro, quoted in ''De Praenominibus''. ''Volesus'' is most likely derived from the Latin verb , "to be strong", or its Oscan cognate; however, Chase prefers a derivation from , "to wish" or "desire".

References

Bibliography

* ''Liber de Praenominibus'', a short treatise of uncertain authorship, traditionally appended to

Valerius Maximus Valerius Maximus () was a 1st-century Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes: ''Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX'' ("Nine books of memorable deeds and sayings", also known as ''De factis dictisque memorabilibus'' ...

' ''

Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium ''Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX'' ("nine books of memorable deeds and sayings", also known as ''De factis dictisque memorabilibus'' or ''Facta et dicta memorabilia'') by Valerius Maximus (c. 20 BC – c. AD 50) was written arou ...

'' (Memorable Facts and Sayings). * ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 p ...

'', William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849). * August Pauly,

Georg Wissowa Georg Otto August Wissowa (17 June 1859 – 11 May 1931) was a German classical philologist born in Neudorf, near Breslau. Education and career Wissowa studied classical philology under August Reifferscheid at the University of Bresla ...

, ''et alii'', '' Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft'' (Scientific Encyclopedia of the Knowledge of Classical Antiquities, abbreviated ''RE'' or ''PW''), J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart (1894–1980). * George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', vol. VIII, pp. 103–184 (1897). {{Praenomina Ancient Roman praenomina