It should also be noted that the nomen was for all intents and purposes an adjective later treated as a noun. It's misleading to then turn around and say that Marcianus derives from Marcius when in fact Marcius isn't really a noun and the period in which it was treated as a noun (late Republican) is an age where no one had the praenomen Marcius.
Translation reverse: "Marcus Volteius Marci Filius" (Mark Volteius son of Marc).
Quintus Marcius once meant 'Quintus, son of Marcus', before Marcius became the name of a family tracing descent from a certain Marcus. just as in Attica old patronymics in survive as names of families, phratries, and demes.8 However, for the meaning 'son of Marcus', from the beginning only Marci filius is attested. The situation is the same among the related Italic peoples. Their family names also reveal old patronymic adjectives, but their inscriptions again give the father's inscriptions again give the father's name only in the genitive, although with the difference that, as in Attic, the genitive is added on its own, without the word for 'son'. https://books.google.com/books?id=dSISD ... YQ6AEIJDAA
Last edited by Secret Alias on Mon Jun 12, 2017 2:48 pm, edited 3 times in total.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Plutarch on the 'those of Mark' clan, the Marcii house (ὁ Μαρκίων οἶκος):
The patrician house of the Marcii at Rome furnished many men of distinction. One of them was Ancus Marcius, the grandson of Numa by his daughter, and the successor of Tullus Hostilius in the kingship. To this family belonged also Publius and Quintus Marcius, the men who brought into Rome its best and most abundant supply of water.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias wrote:Plutarch on the 'those of Mark' clan, the Marcii house (ὁ Μαρκίων οἶκος)
Ffs, Μαρκίων is another genitive plural (this time in Greek) and the root is... wait for it..., it's coming... a-n-d... here it is --- Μαρκι-, so the translation "the house of the Marcii" is correct. "Marcii" (plural) being the collective family "Marcius". Another dead end.
Dysexlia lures • ⅔ of what we see is behind our eyes
Marcius is not a praenomen. It's a nomen. Do you really want to argue that because you don't know any Marcii from the imperial era, there weren't any? Seriously, an argument from ignorance?
To ease you over it, try these imperial era consuls:
34 suff. [wiki]Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus (consul 34)[/wiki]
52 suff. Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus
72 suff. Sex. Marcius Priscus
100 suff. M. Marcius Macer
110 suff. Sex. Marcius Honoratus
144 suff. L. Marcius Celer
Dysexlia lures • ⅔ of what we see is behind our eyes
Let me try again. Marcus is a noun. Marcius, strictly speaking is an adjective that was later treated like a noun especially in the construction of cognomen i.e. from Marcius Marcianus was constructed. However, and this is a big however, Marcius is not a noun. It is an adjective and the best dictionaries while acknowledging that Marcianus derives from Marcius add the fact that Marcius ultimately derives from Marcus. The use of Marcianus to mean 'of Marcus' might well have started in the pre-republican period where Marcius was not treated as a separate noun but retained its original identity as only an adjective of Marcus. There was clearly a period where nomen were not treated as nouns and in this period Marcianus had already begun its usage. In that early period Marcianus was thus related to noun Marcus not the adjective Marcius.
There does not appear to be any 'shorthand' way of denoting someone or something to 'belonging to' or 'of Mark' in Latin. IMHO the suffix 'ianus' is little more than ius + anus. I don't think it is at all unlikely that Marcianus was understood to go back to Marcus and used as such especially in the later period.
Again I am not sure it is entirely relevant but the relationship between Marcus and Mars (whereby Mark Anthony and others were described as 'warlike' because of their name) might well have had an influence on the development. Not only do Marcius and Martius sound the same but we a similar construct in the name Servius, Servianus and the perceived root servus in not one but many Latin authors (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Festus). In other words, servus + ius and + ianus = Marcus + ius and + ianus.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
In Dean's study of cognomen of the soldiers of the Roman Empire 'Marcianus' is identified under the umbrella of 'Marcus.' Dean doesn't give a separate category for Marcius as if it is an unrelated name:
(MARCUS) MARCELLINTJS, MARCELLUS, MARCIANUS
With the uses of Marcus as a cognomen there must be included Marcianus, Marculus, Marcellus, and Marcellinus. The number of examples of each cognomen are: Marcus, sixteen; Marcianus, thirty-two; Marculus, one; Marcellus, twenty-three; Marcellinus, twenty-two. The total is then ninety-three, which is distributed as follows among the provinces: Forty-eight from the provinces included in CIL III; nineteen from Africa; thirteen from Italy; nine from inscriptions in CIL XIII; three from England; one from Spain. CIL III affords the greater number in each single name as well as in the total. Marcus is not found in Africa. The earliest case seems to be lulius Marcus, the name of a soldier in Moesia Inferior in the year 155. At Alexandria in the year 194 two veterans bearing the cognomen Marcus are recorded in a military list; both were born in camp. The majority of the dated examples fall in the late second or third centuries.
Marcianus is used more than any other cognomen formed on this stem and these examples are probably all later than the first century, at least all the dated ones are. Marcianus is found in Moesia in the year 135 and in the legion VII Claudia at Viminacium, to which Aelius Marcianus of this year belongs, were enrolled in the year 195 three Marciani, coming from Scupi, Nicopolis, and Ratiaria. Nearly a century later in the year 270 Aurelius Marcianus was an officer at the same place. Others from the Danube region are dated in the early third century. T. Flavius Marcianus, a centurion in Arabia, gives Philippopolis as his home.
At Lambaesis the usage extends over a long period. Two veterans (?) during the reign of Hadrian bearing this cognomen came from Nicomedia. Others are dated in the third century. The homes of two undated legionaries are Oea and Thamugadi. The only example of a Marcianus born in camp is found in Moesia in the year 170.
Marcellus appears earlier among the soldiers than the other cognomina in this group. M. Vibrius Marcellus, a centurion of the XVIth legion at Rome, belongs to the time of Tiberius or Gaius. Salvius Marcellus, a centurion of the XV Apollinaris at Carnuntum, is probably earlier than the year 63. Maecius Marcellus, a centurion of the XI Claudia in Italy, is dated in the year 75. A centurion Marcellus in the III Augusta at Thamugadi was in service in the latter half of the first century. Two soldiers named Marcellus came from towns outside of Africa: one in the reign of Hadrian, from Larisa, another in the reign of Antoninus Pius, from Ivenna in Noricum. (This reading for the name of the town is not wholly certain.) Other dated examples at Lambaesis belong to the early third century.
The homes of some men in other provinces are known: M. Fuficius Marcellus in Pannonia Superior comes from Aquileia; M. Seius Marcellus at Athens, from Forum lulii; M. Valerius Marcellus, from Vercellae. None of these is dated. A very late example of Marcellus appears in the year 298 in the name of a centurion of the II Traiana in Egypt.
Marcellinus is not frequent in the first century. C. lulius Marcellinus from Tavium was in Alexandria before the year 108. T. Aridius Marcellinus was a centurion at the same place in the year 155. And in the year 194 we find Baebius Marcellinus also at Alexandria. In Pannonia two examples are found in the early third century. At Viminacium in Moesia in the year 195 one veteran, M. Valerius Marcellinus, came from Scupi. Later than the year 170 is the name Marcellinius Marcellinus. (Vid. Chap. Ill, Similarity between Nomen and Cognomen.) L. Septimius Marcellinus in Germany was born in Pannonia at Ulpia Papiria Petavio and served as a centurion in three legions during the reign of Alexander Severus (222-235). Marculus is found as the cognomen of a legionary at Vienna. The nomen is lost and the date is uncertain.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
It would seem that the name Marcus was understood to be Mars + icus 'belonging to Mars' even though this seems to be a false etymology according to Chase. He says that Mar + icus = something like 'bright,' 'renowned.'
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
