TechInfoDepot:Naming conventions (ancient Romans)

There are about 5,000 citizens of ancient Rome about which we have some biographical information, and for a combination of reasons, naming each one uniquely for articles is not straightforward. Even the twenty-odd most famous can be problematic; Caesar usually means Julius Caesar, but the cognomen was later used by all Roman emperors. (The problem is not unique to TechInfoDepot; the Oxford Classical Dictionary has an appendix of alternative names by which some Romans are known, and Pauly-Wissowa uses a numbering system.)

This convention is intended to amplify the use of the most common name in English, and to cover the cases of extreme ambiguity and obscure personages.

Article name
Common names should be utilized over formal ones.

The following are examples of common names that TechInfoDepot uses as article titles instead of a more formal alternative:


 * Livy (not "Titus Livius")
 * Germanicus (not "Germanicus Julius Caesar")
 * Nero (not "Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus")

Roman emperors are generally considered the primary topic for generic names. Titus, Claudius, and Nero are all articles on Roman emperors, even though these are generic names shared by many other Romans. There are however exceptions. For instance, the name Tacitus is most commonly associated with the senator and historian Tacitus, not the emperor Marcus Claudius Tacitus.

Prefixes or suffixes associated with titles, honours or public offices, such as pontifex, praetor or consul, should not be employed in the article title. However, they may be appropriate if bracketed disambiguation is considered useful (e.g. Papirius (pontifex)).

In specialist publications, sets of abbreviations are often used to used to denote ancestry (e.g. Marcus Baebius Q. f. Cn. n. Tamphilus for Marcus Baebius Tamphilus) or praenomen  (e.g. C. Fabius Hadrianus for Gaius Fabius Hadrianus); both reflect Roman formal usage. Filiations and abbreviations should be avoided as they unnecessarily confuse the average reader.

However, redirects from such forms serve the reader who wants to know who Cn. Pompeius Magnus is – it redirects to the article on Pompey; those who make such redirects should remember that C. stands for Gaius, and Cn. for Gnaeus. Redirects from forms including Caius, like Caius Julius Caesar, will also help the student of the older literature.

Shared names
Names associated with more than one notable person is a common occurrence for biographies on ancient Romans, particularly Roman public officials. As a result, certain names are likely to be the natural title for more than one article. Additional precision is sometimes necessary to distinguish an article from other uses. This is most commonly done by adding a disambiguating tag in parentheses at the end of the title. In certain cases it may be done by choosing a different form of the title in order to achieve uniqueness.

Public officials with duplicate names should be disambiguated by the highest position held (e.g. Lucius Cornelius Scipio (praetor)). The year the highest office was first held (e.g. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus (consul 237 BC)) should only be included if further disambiguation is necessary.

A person who held no title or public office, or a person whose primary interest to history is his (or her) relationship with another person, may require alternative terms for disambiguation (e.g. Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi (usurper), Drusilla (sister of Caligula))

Compound pages should be avoided unless only one or two individuals of the same name are likely to be mentioned or linked to; otherwise it becomes too confusing.