"My name is now Antonius Maximus"

Discuss the world of the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, and Egyptians.
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ficino
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Joined: Fri Oct 25, 2013 6:15 pm

"My name is now Antonius Maximus"

Post by ficino »

Interesting window on change of citizenship, which in turns makes one wonder about how the person conceived of identity.

In 234 BGU 423 = Select Papyri (Loeb) I 112, an Egyptian, Apion, is writing to his father, Epimachus. Apion had been recruited into the Roman fleet and went to the naval base at Misenum. He tells his father, “my name is now Antonius Maximus.” He would have had to acquire Alexandrian citizenship in Alexandria. Upon joining the fleet, he would have acquired Roman citizenship and gotten a praenomen – perhaps Marcus, to go with the new nomen Antonius. He probably just chose to omit the praenomen in the letter.


here is a link to the translation:

http://www.attalus.org/docs/select1/p112.html


Did his fellow sailors call him Apion or Maximus? Who did he now think he was? He signs his name in the letter to dad as Apion.

I'm not introducing a topic for debate, just sharing this with the group. It's interesting how the Roman military system took pains to Romanize its foreign recruits.
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