Wikidata:WikiProject Ancient Rome

Purpose edit

This project aims to improve items related to Ancient Rome.

Labels generally used for Romans by language:

Sample: Q359810 uses the label "Lucius Caecilius Metellus" in la, en, de, fr, nl, sv.

Latin sometimes includes the abbreviated name of the father. This is not(?) included in labels for Latin based labels.

Roman names follow a standard pattern. Taking the example Julius Caesar (Q1048), his full identity was C. Iulius C. f. C. n. Fab. Caesar, with

C. as Roman praenomen (P2358)Gaius (Q5517401)
Iulius as Roman nomen gentilicium (P2359)Julius (Q29871072), and therefore gens (P5025)Julia gens (Q510193)
C. f. C. n. the praenomina of his father and his grandfather (here C(aii) f(ilius) C(aii) n(epos)), for which we only model the first relation using father (P22)
Fab. as member of Roman tribe (P11491)Fabia (Q3538791)
Caesar as Roman cognomen (P2365)Caesar (Q1025414)

With this in mind, a few caveats:

Cognomen isn't mandatory ; some figures i.e. families did not had one.
The use of the praenomen slowly wane and by Late Antiquity we only find it attested for the old aristocratic families of Rome.
During the Empire, it became common to agregate names as part of heritage. Some figures can boast of several praenomina, nomina and cognomina, like Marcus Calpurnius Longus (Q12286091).
Julius Caesar (Q1048) is an exceptionnaly well known individual for Antiquity standards. For most other figures, one or more of the above-listed element are unknown to us.