Onomastics and Prosopography

Abstract

This chapter studies the link between personal names and the identification of the individuals comprising the population of Greek cities in the Roman Empire. In a diverse world virtually devoid of surviving birth certificates and archival records, the onomastic sequences present in our primary sources reveal ancestry relationships on which a prosopography of these poleis can be attempted. This useful information must be approached with caution given the particularities and evolution of nomenclature systems in the Imperial period. For this reason, an introduction to the basics of Greek and Roman onomastics is provided, together with a deeper exploration of the complexities of patronymics and tria nomina sequences in the available evidence. This analysis corroborates the importance of names in revealing not only the identification of individuals but also issues of local differentiation, chronology, and status, particularly as regards the spread of Roman citizenship in the Greek East.