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February 27, 2006

Camillus, Caeso, Volesus

Expressions that were once current have gone out of use nowadays. Names, too, that were formally household words are virtually archaisms today; Camillus, Caeso, Volesus, Dentatus; or a little later, Scipio and Cato; Augustus too, and even Hadrian and Antoninus. All things fade into the storied past, and in a little while are shrouded in oblivion. (section 33, book 4 of the Meditations)

Marcus Aurelius does a little socio-linguistics. (For more recent analysis see chapter 6 of Freakonomics)

Posted by logican at February 27, 2006 11:15 AM

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Comments

I was reading Meditations recently as well, and remember that passage. It really struck me as an interesting little book. I posted on it a couple of months ago:

http://archimedes-point.blogspot.com/2005/10/some-words-from-our-friend-marcus.html

(Ignore the spam comments)

Posted by: Brendan at February 28, 2006 02:37 PM

The Baby Name Wizard was critical of some of the discussion of baby names in Freakonomics.

Posted by: Matt Weiner at February 28, 2006 11:59 PM

Camillus and Caeso and their female equivalents are still common names, although they are used not in the Latin original form, but in the vernacular of each language. Camilo, Camila, Camille, Camile etc. are common in many Countries of the world.

Posted by: Tony Marmo [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 2, 2006 11:51 AM

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