Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

800 TNOMEN. NOMEN.
Patrician was of secondary importance. It would was the tenth after their birth. (Aristoph. Av,
seem unlikely that there was any patrician gens 922, &c.) According to some accounts a child re.
existing in the year B. c. 133, or, indeed, long ceived its name as early as the seventh or even
before that time, the families of which had not fifth day after its birth. [AMPlUalDom lxA.] The
enjoyed the highest honours of the state many tenth day, called 5Esca'rT, however, was a festive
times. The exceptions, if any, would be few. day, and friends and relations were invited to take
In reading the Greek writers on Roman history, part in a sacrifice and a repast, whence the exit is useful to attend to the meaning of the political pressions 8EKdrr DueEl and 8EIcdT77rY er'tta. If
terms which they use. The vvatroi of Plutarch in a court of justice proofs could be adduced that
(Tib. GraccrL. 13, 20), and the 2r2AovSot,, are the a father had held the aeKcdT77, it was sufficient
Nobilitas and their partisans; or as Cicero, after evidence that he had recognised the child as his
he was made consul, would call them the Opti- own. (Demosth. c. Boeot. i. p. 1001, c. Boeot. ii.
mates. In such passages as Dion Cassius (xxxviii. p. 1017; Isaeus, de Pyrrh. kesred. p. 60.)
2), the meaning of vvpaTOL may be collected from The fact that. every Greek had only one name
the context. [G. L.] rendered it necessary to have an innumerable
NODUS, in a special sense, was applied to the variety of names, and never has a nation shown
following parts of dress:- I. The knot used in more taste, ingenuity, and invention in devising
tying on the scarf [CsLA YVS] or other article con- them than the ancient Greeks. But however great
stituting the AMICT'rs. This was often effected the number of names might be, ambiguity and conby the aid of a brooch [FIBULA], a ring, or some fusion could not be avoided; and in reading the
jewel (Virg. Ane. i. 320, vi. 301, xi. 776; Claud. works of the Greeks we are not always certain
(de Rapt. Pros. ii. 40); but frequently in the whether the same name in different passages or
method shown in the woodcut of Diana at p. 276. writers belongs to one or to several persons. The
1I. The knot of hair (cdcpuvumos, KcpWC6\os), either Greeks themselves were aware of this, and where
at the top or at the back of the head adopted by accuracy was of importance they used various
both sexes in fastening their long hair, which was means to prevent mistakes. Sometimes they added
turned upwards or backwards for the purpose the name of thie father in the genitive case, as
(crine r1usus addecto revocare nodo, Seneca, Oedip.'AAltclaCdS s 6 KXEWLvov,. In1XEL-rodvaa 6 Havo'aviou:
ii.; Virg. Aen. iv. 138; Hor. Epod. xi. 28). Ex- sometimes they added the name of the place or
amples may be seen in the woodcuts at pp. 329, country in which a person was born, in the folrm of
597. III. The knot of leather worn by boys of an adjective, as ovoKva8s ils'AOnqae7os,'HpOdoros
the poorer classes at Rome instead of the golden'AXlnapaoraaeis, XapsavTtir s Ilarlmtsr, AL caiapB ULLA. [J. Y.] XOS 6 Mresdavos, &c.; sometimes they added an
NOMEN (bvoaa), name. 1. GREEK. The epithet to the name, expressing either the occupaGreeks,'as is well known, bore only one name (Panus. tion or profession which a person followed, or invii. 7. ~ 4), and it was one of the especial rights of dicating the school to which he belonged. Instances
a father to choose the names for his children, and are of such frequent occurrence that it is superfluous
to alter them if he pleased. (Demosth. c. Boeot. i. to quote any. The custom of adding the father's
p. 1002, 1006, c. Miacart. p. 1075, &c.) It was name was called 7rarpoO'v o,'ojuaCieo0at. (Paus. vii.
customary to give to the eldest son the name of 7. ~ 4; Xenoph. Oeconolm. 7. ~ 3.)
the grandfather on his father's side. The history In common life the Greeks had yet another
of Greece contains many instances of this custom, means of avoiding ambiguity, and this was the
and Sositheus (ap. Demostli. c. Afacart. 1.c.) says, frequent use of nicknames, expressive of mental or
" I gave to my eldest son, as is just (&)srsep Kcal bodily peculiarities and defects. Thus DemosBiKaLdV ia'r), the name of my father." (Compare thenes was from his childhood called,BdraXos.
Eustath. ad II. v. 546.) What custom was generally (Aeschin. c. Timastic. pp. 139, 142; Denlosth. de
followed in regard to the other children may be Coron. p. 288.) Aristophanes (Av. 1291, &c.)
inferred from the same passage, for Sositheus goes mentions several names of birds which were used
on to say, that he called his second son after the as nicknames; other nicknames are preserved in
name of his wife's father, the third after a relation Athenaeus (vi. p. 242).
of his wife, and the fourth son after his own (Compare Becker, Cliarikoes, vol. i. p. 23, &c.)
grandfather on his mother's side. Mothers seem 2. ROMAN. In the earliest history of Rome
also sometimes to have assumed the right of givinlg there occur persons who are designated by only
the names to their children (Eurip. Ph-'loe. 58), one name, such as Romulus, Remus, and others,
and it may be that, as in the case described by while there are many also who bear two names.
Aristophanes (Nub. 60, &c.), sometimes a quarrel The Romans of a later age were themselves unarose between the parents, if they could not agree certain as to the legitimate number of names borne
upon the name to be given to a child. A boy also by the earliest Romans; and while Varro (ap.
sometimles received the name of his father, as in Val. lelax., Epitome de Nomainumn Ratione), Apthe cases of Demosthenes and Demades, or one pian (Rosa. list. Praef. 13), and others, stated
similar to that of his father. Nausinicus thus that the earliest Romans used only to have one
called his son Nausiphilus, and Callicrates called name, their opponents adduced a great many inhis son Callistratus. (Bickh, ad Pind. P?/ft. iv. stances in which persons had two. This question
I. 265.) A similar method was sometimes adopted will perhaps be placed in a more proper light, and
In the names of several brothers; thus two brothers become more satisfactorily settled, if we consider
in the speech of Lysias against Dizagiton are called separately the three distinct elements of which
Diodotus and Diogiton. In some cases lastly, the the Roman nation was composed in its origin, and
lname of a son was a patronyimicon, formed from it will then be found that both Varro and his opthe name of the father, as Phocion, the son of ponenlts are right or wrong according as their as-'Phocos. sertions are applied to one or to all of the three
The da;y on which children received their names tribes.