The secret name of Roman women
In ancient Rome, a own woman's name had to remain secret, in fact, while men have their name, then the name of the gens and finally the cognomen, women are always written as the name of the gens to which they belong - that often induces errors in historical treatises - and are distinguished with maior or minor based on the seniority or by an ordinal number, secunda, tertia ...
When a baby girl was born after eight days you had to make the first rite, the lustratio: the baby was cleaned with water and was given her own name, the praenomen. The ceremony took place within the family house and participated only family members and relatives and known only to them was the name given to the baby.
In Medallion of Lucilla, issued by the daughter of Marcus Aurelius in 184 AD, is perfectly represented the ritual of lustratio (purification), is special about this and other medallions of empresses (Faustina, Crispina and Julia Domna) and that everyone have no legend, as if to indicate what is known but which shall not appoint.
The woman's name is never revealed, even when she is married; during the ritual when it is posed the question "What is your name?", when to enter in the house of her husband, the bride responds to call themselves by the same name of the groom and by that time the name of her gens will be replaced by that one of husband, or it will be added.
Even in funerary inscriptions never appears the real name of the woman who is always and only daughter, mother or someone's wife.
Varro and Festus Avienus report that the real name of the woman is not revealed not for a prohibition but for ancient custom. Attempting an interpretation of custom, the individual name (praenomen) not only affirms the existence of the person, not only conjures up her but does it be what she is: the woman is his name according to the archaic values related to mythical archetypes.
As well as according to the archaic system the name of things it is equivalent to create them - Aeschylus remember that the King with his name realizes all things - the individual name was considered a part of the person and say it was equivalent to have physical contact with the woman.
In its history the Roman society has always sharply divided what is private and what is public, the inside from the outside, and bringing this dichotomy to the extreme can groped an explanation in esoteric key; Roman society is based on familia, although in the sense of the gens, and in every period the sense of belonging is strong enough to engage even servants, slaves and freedmen, and the family exists as it have a public image entrusted to men but it draws its strength and its respectability by the behavior of women who keep in their soul the quid primitive and mythical from which draws the whole family and it's reason for his existence.
Rome's history is the story of his gens and of women of these gens: Giulia, Domitia Lucilla, Fulvia, Valeria, Livia, Lucretia, Cecilia, Tullia, Emilia, Cintia, Claudia, Flavia, Priscilla ...
One of the most famous names of women of ancient Rome is still one of the most common names; it is a significant fact that in countries like Italy, Spain and the United States is among the ten most common female names of all time, in England and France among the top thirty: those of you who do not know a woman named Julia?
But the eternal feminine and her secret name is also valid for towns: there is the legend of Rome's secret name, a name that should not be revealed because otherwise if the enemy knew that one, Rome threatens not only its supremacy but to be erased.
The secret name of Rome is unknown still.
by M.L. ©ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (Ed 1.0 - 23/10/2016)