Third century Gaulish personal name
This is one of those things, you will either find this interesting, bordering on exciting, or will go "whatever" in which case, you will not click on the link. Oh and its a fairly long posting and involves multiple languages.
I was idly flicking through Speidel (1994) - which in my case was not a very fast flick, more a sort of dawdle as my level of German language competence is below minimal - when I came across and interesting and unexpected detail.
I should explain that this book is a catalogue of inscriptional evidence relating to the Imperial Horse Guard of the Roman Emperor - mainly dating from its (re)formation under Trajan to its dissolution under Constantine. Some altar dedications, mostly gravestones. In a fine piece of irony, the fact that Constantine was so keen to erase the equites (by demolishing their forts at Rome, building the basilica of St. John Lateran on the site of the newer fort, and his own mausoleum on the site of their training ground and graveyard outside Rome) meant that their remains were preserved right up to the 20th century. Oh and the book has photos of each stone, too. But I digress.
So, here is the interesting gravestone inscription (CIL 6, 3265; Speidel 1994, 312-313). If the []() stuff is unfamiliar, look at this description of the Leiden conventions first.
D(is) M(anibus) Iulius Noemb- er, eq(ues) s(ingularis) imp(eratoris) n(ostri), t(urma) Fortunati, qui vixit an(nos) XXXVI st(i)p(endiorum) XIII curan- te Atilius Icorandus f(aciendum) c(uravit).
There are three people mentioned here. First the deceased, Julius Noember, a trooper (since no other rank is given) of the equites singulares augusti; he had been in the troop commanded by Fortunatus (who would have held the rank of decurion). Lastly is the guy who held the saved money to pay for a tombstone, Atilius Icorandus.
Speidel notes that this is an unusual name and attempts to correct this by claiming a mis-spelling or mis-reading of a more conventionally Latin name, Decorandus. But this is, frankly, unconvincing; and also unnecessary. Its a straightforward Gaulish name, only the case-ending being Latin.
ico- is a common prefix (Delamarre 2003, 187) in personal names and also place names, although the precise meaning is disputed. Examples include Ico-tasgus, Ico-uellauna, Icconius, Ιχορειξ and Ιχο-ταρίον. -randus isn't listed directly, but there is a word equoranda which means either a water-border (such as a river between the territories of two tribes/nations) or an agreed border, depending on your favoured derivation of the equo- term (Delamarre 2003, 164-165). Furthermore, equo- is possibly derived from ico-! So to me, Icorandus leaps out as a Gaulish name meaning something like 'border-man'.
I was pleased to note that the recently published Delamarre (2007, 108) does indeed list Icorandus as Gaulish and lists this inscription as evidence.
Okay, so we have a Gaulish personal name (itself significant, since most of the equites singulares augustii were recruited from Germania Inferior or, in the third century, Pannonia). But then, Speidel goes on to date this inscription to the third century on stylistic grounds and the use of particular abbreviations (which seem to have changed over time, like fashions). Now, conventionally Gaulish was rapidly replaced by Latin during the first century CE, except for some isolated country-bumpkin hold-outs. But here we have someone, in the third century, at the imperial court, using a Gaulish name. And that is unexpected, and noteworthy.
Delamarre, X. (2003) Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Paris, Editions Errance.
Delamarre, X. (2007) Noms de personnes celtiques dans l'épigraphie classique. Paris, Editions Errance.
Speidel, Michael P. (1994) Die Denkmäler der Kaiserreiter Equites Singulares Augusti Köln, Rheinland-Verlag