The medicine and doctors of Horace / by Eugene F. Cordell.

Date:
[1901?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The medicine and doctors of Horace / by Eugene F. Cordell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    where would he have found such opportunities for work as [337] in the great collection of Augustus—the public library on the Palatine Hill ? Here then, we find two men of the name of Celsus, simultaneously engaged in transcribing and com- piling, not once but habitually and evidently for publication. What is the inevitable inference ? That they are one and the same person. The name, Albinovanus, seems at first sight to offer an insurmountable obstacle to this theory. Let us consider, briefly, the nomenclature of Roman proper names. Every free-born Roman of the higher class had three names, I. an individual name or pr^nomen, as Aulus, Gains, Marcus, Publius, Quintus, etc. The number of these Avas limited. They were considered titles of honor and as such were highly prized, as Horace says: gaudent prcenomine molles auricu- lae.- II. The gens name or nomen, as Claudius, Corne- lius, Julius, TuUius, Virgilius. III. The individual family name or cognomen, as Crispus, Maro, ISTaso, Plautus, Seneca. The cognomen was sometimes assumed, optivum cogno- men ; often it was conferred by the public: frequentia Mercuriale Imposuere mihi cognomen compita, the crowded streets gave me the surname Mercurial. I imagine that such cognomina as canis,'' pinguis,'' Asina''^ and Asellus,'''' were rather in the nature of nicknames; they would hardly have been adopted voluntarily by their hold- ers. An additional cognomen was often added to a name to indicate some circumstance of life, or character. In later times this was called agnomen'' Such were Africanus, Asiaticus, ISTumantinus, Capitolinus, Torquatus, Germanicus, Justus, Felix, Declamator. Thus are Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus, Publius Aemilianus Scipio ISTumantinus, Lucius Annseus Seneca Declamator, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi, Decius Junius Brutus Scaeva and Albinus, Quintus Fabius Maximus Cuncta- 59 Sat. II, 5, 32. 30 Epist. II, 2, 10. gat. II, 3, 25. 82 Sat. II, 2, 56. 33 Sat. I, 3, 58. 33a Epist. I, 13, 8. 33b Sic. & Liv.