Why were there so many lame and yellow among the Roman emperors?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Historians prefer to hush up the fact that there were many lame and yellow among the Roman emperors. Whole dynasties. In this article we will try to figure out where so many lame and yellow Roman emperors came from.

According to traditional views, the history of the Roman Empire includes a period of about five centuries, starting from 27 BC, when Octavian Augustus was proclaimed the first emperor, and ending with the destruction of the empire in 476.

The ancient Roman historian Sextus Aurelius Victor, author of "Extracts on the Life and Morals of Roman Emperors", wrote that "in the year from the founding of the city of the seven hundred and twenty-second and from the expulsion of the kings, the four hundred and eightieth in Rome, the custom was again established in the future to obey one, but not the king, but to the emperor, or named by a more sacred name, August. So, Octavian, the son of Senator Octavius from the mother's side, belonged through the Julian clan to the descendants of Aeneas, by the adoption of his great-uncle Gaius Caesar received the name of Gaius Caesar, and then for his victory was named August. Becoming at the head of the Empire, he himself enjoyed the power of the tribune of the people”.

In its original sense, the word "emperor" was not associated with the concept of power, but meant an honorary military title that was assigned to a commander who won a major victory and celebrated a triumph. And only later, according to historians, the emperor became the head of state, and the Roman state itself became the empire.

Interestingly, traditional science believes that for more than five centuries of history in the Roman Empire, they could not come up with a clear system for the transfer of power. Therefore, some emperors appointed their sons as successors, i.e. power passed by inheritance, and other emperors chose candidates for the throne from their inner circle.

In addition, it is believed that from the end of the 1st century, the Praetorian Guard began to have tremendous strength, which allowed it to proclaim, overthrow and even kill emperors that it did not like.

All this led to the fact that sometimes emperors ruled for tens of years, and sometimes several emperors changed at once within a short period. So, for example, from the middle of the 1st century for 120 years, only 8 emperors ruled Rome, and in 69 alone, 4 emperors visited the throne. In 193 and even more - 6 emperors.

Usually emperors bore several names at once, for example, from 198 to 217, an emperor ruled in Rome, whose full name was: Caesar Marcus Aurelius Sever Antoninus Pius Augustus.

It is believed that according to Roman custom, a son or adopted son took the full name of his father (adoptive parent) and at the end of which he added his former name. But the existing list of Roman emperors does not confirm this custom.

For example, the father of the aforementioned Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius Augustus was named Caesar Lucius Septimius Severus Pertinax Augustus, and his brother, who was also an emperor, was named Caesar Publius Septimius Geta Augustus.

However, if this custom was fulfilled, then the names of some emperors would consist of a fairly large set of consecutive names.

Currently, the meanings of some names are generally known. So, it is believed that the name Caesar means “the title of the supreme ruler of the Roman Empire” and it was from him that the Slavic word “king” and the Germanic word “Kaiser” came from. However, some scholars believe that on the contrary, the Latin word "caesar" comes from the Slavic word "king".

It is noteworthy that not all emperors bore the name Caesar. For example, the full name of the Emperor Vitelius was Aulus Vitelius Germanicus Augustus, and the Emperor Clodius Albinus was Decimus Clodius Septimius Albinus.

Along with the well-known, the meanings of some names are modestly hushed up, since they sound rather strange in translation.

First of all, this refers to the name Claudius. So, the only version of the origin of the name Claudius is the Latin "claudius", meaning to limp and derived from the words "claudeo", "claudo", i.e. lame, crippled - "claudus". By the way, the adjective “claudus” was one of the epithets of the lame god Vulcan, Hephaestus.

However, judging by the images of Hephaestus, it is difficult to assume that he was limping.

It should be noted that historians believe that Claudius (Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus) at the time of his election as emperor was already an elderly man (although at that time he was only 31 years old) and in the house of the Julius-Claudians he was even kept away from state affairs, since considered mentally disabled. This was due to the fact that as a child he suffered paralysis and since then he had an awkward gait, his head was shaking and his tongue tangled.

Of course, it can be assumed that it was precisely because of the awkward gait of Claudius Nero that they called Claudius, i.e. Lame. Although such a disrespectful appeal to the emperor, the supreme ruler of the Roman Empire, is perceived rather strange.

It is also strange that nothing is known about the lameness of other Claudians. The ancient Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus in his work “Acts” described the emperor Flavius Claudius Jovian as follows: “His posture during movement was distinguished by dignity, his face was very friendly, his eyes were blue, he was very tall, so for a long time they could not find any royal clothing suitable for him”.

Sextus Aurelius Victor in "Extracts on the Life and Morals of the Roman Emperors" wrote about Flavius Claudius Jovian that "he was of a prominent physique." As you can see, not a word about lameness.

It is noteworthy that, apart from lameness, there were no signs of other physical disabilities in the names of the Roman emperors. There were no one-armed, hunchbacked, or cross-eyed rulers. And they were lame. And in large quantities, too. Moreover, there was even a whole dynasty of Claudians, i.e. dynasty Lame.

The lists of Roman emperors inform us that the name Claudius, i.e. The lame was worn by emperors not only from the Claudian dynasty itself. Most famous: Tiberius (Tiberius ClaudiusNero), Claudius (Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus), Nero (Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus), Pacatian (Tiberius Claudius Marin Pacatsian), Claudius II (Caesar Marcus Aurelius Valery Claudius Pius Felix Invict Augustus), Quintillus (Caesar Marcus Aurelius Claudius Quintillus), Tacitus (Caesar Mark Claudius Tacitus Augustus), Constantine II (Flavius Claudius Constantine), Constantius Gallus (Flavius Claudius Constance Gallus), Silvan (Claudius Silvanus), Julian II (Flavius Claudius Julian Augustus), Jovian (Flavius Claudius Jovian), Constantine III (Flavius Claudius Konstantin).

As you can see, there were plenty of lame emperors. And they called them something like this: Nero the Lame Tsar or Tacitus the Lame Tsar.

Some emperors and wives bore the name Claudius, i.e. lame. For example, Claudia Pulchra is the third wife of Publius Quintilius Vara. The daughter of Nero and Poppea was called Claudia Augusta. She was deified by Nero in the first days of her existence, but died of illness, before she even four months, which plunged Nero into mourning. It is no less strange to call your beloved baby lame.

The name Claudius was borne not only by emperors, but also by scientists and poets. The most famous among them were Claudius Ptolemy - an astronomer, mathematician, optician and geographer and Claudius Claudian - a Roman poet who wrote the mythological poem “The Abduction of Proserpine”, as well as numerous panegyrics, invectives, and topical political poems.

It turns out that Ptolemy was named Lame, and Claudius Claudian was a lame Lame.

Adrian Goldsworthy, in his book In the Name of Rome, dedicated an entire chapter to the commander Mark Claudius Marcellus.“Despite his age, Marcellus has held command posts almost without interruption since the beginning of the Second Punic War … In his youth, he fought in Sicily during the First Punic War, earning many awards and a reputation as a brave warrior for his repeated heroism. Among these awards was the corona civica, one of the highest awards in Rome. It is hard to believe that such a hero was Claudius, i.e. Lame Marcellus.

In the same book, A. Goldsworthy mentions another commander: “… at the final stage of the war … representatives of the younger generation won a victory for Rome. Among them was Gaius Claudius Nero, who made the most significant contribution to the defeat of Hasdrubal, the brother of Hannibal, in 207 BC, defeating him at the Metaurus River”. So, another talented commander, and again Claudius, i.e. Lame. At the same time, in the description of these Lame ones there is not even a remote hint of such a disease.

However, as in the description of other Khromykh-Klavdiev. This is how, for example, Ammianus Marcellinus describes the Roman emperor Flavius Claudius Jovian: “his posture during movement was distinguished by dignity, his face was very friendly, his eyes were blue, he was very tall, so for a long time they could not find any royal clothing suitable for him.” And not a word about lameness.

It is noteworthy that some researchers believe that the name Clovis came from the name of Claudius, from which, in turn, the name Louis originated - the name of the French kings, i.e. it turns out a whole dynasty of lame rulers of France.

Of course, one could assume that Claudius is not a characteristic of the bearer of the given name, but rather a family name. But in this case, it would have to be passed from father to son and so on, but this is precisely what we often do not observe in Roman history. The name Claudius could have been given to an emperor whose father was not Claudius.

One could also assume that the meaning of the name Claudius was not clear to the emperors themselves. This, as at present, we rarely think about the fact that, for example, the name Victor has the meaning "winner", and the name Anatoly has the meaning "eastern". But if the names Victor or Anatoly have a meaningful meaning in Latin and are not directly associated with these meanings for Russian speakers, then for an emperor who speaks Latin, the name Claudius must have been associated with its Latin meaning.

Maybe lameness was considered a special feature worth mentioning in the name of the lame person? It turns out not.

For example, it is known that during a campaign against the Scythians in 339 BC, Tsar Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great, received a severe wound with a spear in the leg and subsequently went limp. However, no mention of his lameness appeared in his name.

According to the records of the biographer Charlemagne Einhard, the emperor, crowned in 800 by Pope Leon III as the first emperor of Saint Rome, in old age he began to limp. But there was no mention of his lameness in his name either.

The version about the mass lameness of the Roman emperors looks rather strange. However, it is possible that lameness has nothing to do with it, and it arose from a misinterpretation of the Latin word “clau (v) dius”.

It is known that the Latin language has changed more than once during its existence and even underwent several reforms of the alphabet. One of them in the first century AD tried to carry out the emperor Claudius, one of the same Lame, adding 3 new letters to it to make the letter closer to the Latin pronunciation. However, these letters, which had sound correspondences [v], [ps], [y], were forgotten again soon after the death of Claudius.

The letters W, J, U, K, Z were generally added to the alphabet only in the Middle Ages, giving it a modern shape.

As for the Latin letter "c", scientists believe that it could come from the Greek "scale" and was originally pronounced as "g", but not as "k". Remnants of this pronunciation are visible in the spelling of some ancient Roman personal names. So, the name Cnaeus - "Gney", was abbreviated as C., and the name Cai or Cāius - "Guy" was abbreviated as Cn. It was only much later that the letter "c" began to be pronounced as "k". However, this is not so simple.

The famous researcher N. A. Morozov devoted an entire chapter “Sacred Latin” to the analysis of the Latin alphabet in his book “Christ”. He drew attention to the fact that in European writing, the labial square developed well (f, c, p, b). The antero-gum square (s, z, c, c ') developed rather weakly in European writing. It turns out that the Italians pronounce the Latin sound "C" as "CH", the letter "Z" in Italy is read as the Russian "C", and the Italians have no special designation for the sound "Ш".

ON THE. Morozov points out that “for a theoretical philologist who does not blindly trust medieval authorities (who didn’t even know how to pronounce the sound of pseudo-Dz or pronounce S as z not between two vowels), the lack of alphabetical designations causes great difficulties in establishing the correct pronunciation of words containing letters S and Z in ancient languages.

This applies even more to the letters C and G that are similar to each other. The first before the vowels e and i is read by the Italians as Russian CH, by the Germans as C, and by the French as s. And the second letter G is pronounced by the Italians as pseudo-J, too, only before the same two vowels (e and i), by the French as F, by the Germans as G. But this letter by its primary outline (G) is only a variation of C, and in place in the alphabets correspond to the Greek ζ, or the Hebrew ז, which in the Slavic alphabet was dismembered into Ж and 3. Does it not follow that in ancient Italian writing the letter C was always read primarily as K or G, and the letter G was always pronounced as pseudo-J, moreover, the face C itself is an abbreviated Italian G (that is, C was read as H)?"

Thus, it is still not known exactly how the letter "c" was correctly read in the Latin alphabet.

According to N. A. Morozov “The variety of styles for the sound K also remains mysterious. It is still written in Western Europe in three ways: C, K and Q (and in addition in the form of Ch before e and i) and in addition to this they still hide the same sound in the mark X. The strangest thing is that it is written through Q only before a short u, as in modern Italian (for example, in the word quattro-four), and in the form of K only in foreign words. Why was there such ingenuity for the designation of the sound K, while for the sound Ш they did not manage to borrow a single special style even from the Copts or Jews?"

Further, in his book N. A. Morozov concludes that "the Latin language has never been a popular language anywhere, but only the language of an alien or completely alien intelligentsia." This is confirmed by many scholars, believing that the Greek alphabet through et-RUSSIAN served as the ancestor of the Latin alphabet.

But if the Greek alphabet through et-RUSSIAN was the ancestor of the Latin alphabet, then maybe it is worth reading the Latin word “clau (v) dius” according to the rules of the RUSSIAN alphabet?

In this case, it is not difficult to notice that if the first letter "c" in the word "clau (v) dius" is read not as it is now accepted with the sound "k", but as is customary in Slavic languages, i.e. with the sound “c”, then instead of the name Claudius, we will get the name Slavdius.

But SLAVdiy has a well-known Slavic name-forming form, such as VLADISLAV, YarOSLAV, StanSLAV, MiroSLAV, VyachesLAV, SLAVgorod, etc.

In addition, the second part of the name SLAV-DIY, the word Di was well known in Russia. John Malala in his “History” pointed out that Dius is another name for Zeus. It is worth noting that A. T. Fomenko and G. V. Nosovsky in their works have repeatedly analyzed the name Diy and drew attention to the fact that not far from Yaroslavl there is still a large village called Dievo Gorodishche. Previously, there was a fortified settlement in its place.

And in the north of the Perm Territory, at the source of the Kolva River, for a long time, there has been a refuge for schismatic Old Believers - the village of Diy.

However, the name Slavdiy can be a slight distortion of the Slavic word “glorious”. By the way, one of the variants of reading the name: Klava or “Clau (v) a” almost unambiguously reads as “Glory”.

In this case, it turns out that the same Nero or Tacitus bore the name not “lame king”, but “glorious king” or “king of Glory”. Then it becomes clear why there were many Claudian emperors in Rome, i.e. glorious emperors or emperors of glory. It becomes clear why Nero also called his young daughter Claudia, i.e. glorious.

Questions also disappear when Ptolemy turns from lame to glorious. And the generals Marcellus and Guy Nero are also not lame, but glorious.

And the French Louis are glorious kings or kings of Glory.

And, apparently, the god Hephaestus was not lame at all, but, most likely, glorious.

It should be noted that earlier the phrase “King of Glory” was used in Christian icon painting and referred to Jesus Christ. Only by Nikon's reform the phrase “King of Glory” was replaced by the title INCI. Meanwhile, the Old Believers have retained their adherence to the ancient text "King of Glory".

It is not surprising that the Roman emperors could be called in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ the Kings of Glory, i.e. Claudius Caesars.

In this case, the question arises: why do traditional historians “do not notice” this fact?

Everything is simple: it is easier for historians to invent that there were a lot of lame among the Roman emperors than to admit the fact that the Slavic language appeared before Latin, and the Slavic kings of Glory also appeared before the Roman emperors of Glory.

But the story of the unusual names of the Roman emperors does not end there.

Another interesting name of the Roman emperors is one of the most common - Flavius. In the lists you can find the names of such Roman emperors as: Vespasian (Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasian Augustus), Titus (Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasian Augustus), Domitian (Titus Flavius Caesar Domitian Augustus), Constantius I Chlorine (Caesar Marcus Flavius Valery Constance Augustus), Flavius Sever (Caesar Flavius Valery Sever August), Licinius (Flavius Galerius Valery Litsinian Licinius), Constantine I the Great (Flavius Valery Aurelius Constantine), Crisp (Flavius Julius Crisp), Constantine II (Flavius Claudius Constantine), Constantius II (Flavius Julius Constance), Constant (Flavius Julius Constant), Dalmatius the Younger (Flavius Dalmatius), Hannibalian the Younger (Flavius Hannibalian), Magnentius (Flavius Magnus Magnentius), Nepocyanus (Flavius Julius Popilius Nepocyanus Constantine), Constantius Gallus (Flavius Claudius Constantius Gallus), Julian II (Flavius Claudius Julian Augustus), Jovian (Flavius Claudius Jovian), Valentinian I (Flavius Valentinian August), Valens II (Flavius Julius Valens August), Gratian (Flavius Gratian Augustus), Valentinian II (Flavius Valentinian August), Victor (Flavius Victor), Eugene (Flavius Eugene), Theodosius I the Great (Flavius Theodosius Augustus), Honorius (Flavius Honorius Augustus), Constantine III (Flavius Claudius Constantine), Constantius III (Flavius Constantius), John (Flavius John), Valentinian III (Flavius Placid Valentinian), Petronius Maxim (Flavius Petronius Maximus), Avit (Mark Metilius Flavius Eparchy Avit), Majorian (Flavius Julius Valery Majorian), Liby Sever (Flavius Liby Sever Serpentius), Procopius Anthemius (Flavius Procopius Anthemius), Olibrius (Flavius Anicius Olibrius), Glycerius (Flavius Glycerius), Romulus Augustulus (Flavius Romulus Augustus).

It is believed that the name Flavius comes from the Latin Flavius, meaning "gold", "red", "yellow".

The desire of historians to present the emperors as "golden" or at least "golden-haired" is absolutely understandable.

However, “golden” in Latin is written as “aureus”, from the word “aurum” - “gold”.

The word for “redhead” in Latin would be “rufus”, “russeus”, “rutilus” or “fulvus”. By the way, by chance or not, traces of “Rus” - “rus” and “Ruthenia” - “rut” are visible in the Latin spelling of this word.

But the word "yellow" is really in Latin - "flavus", quite close in spelling to the word "flavius".

The very fact of the presence of a large number of "yellow" emperors is not explained by historians. They are only trying to present them not as “yellow”, but as “gold”.

It is also noteworthy that the name of Flavius is in the first place among most emperors, i.e. is basic. Which is weirder for the meaning "yellow".

However, let's look at the ancient Latin alphabet, published in the book by Karl Faulman “Schriftzeichen und Alphabete aler Zeiten und Volker”, published in 1880 in Vienna.

It is clearly seen that the capital letters "s" and "f" very often differed by one inconspicuous point.

The similarity between the capital letters "s" and "f" is reflected in cartography. For example, on the map of Asia by Gerard de Yode, published in 1593, the city of Astrakhan is written as Aftracan.

On the same map, the city of Kazan is written as Cafane, the Cossacks region is written as Kaffaki, Persia is written as Perfia, etc.

A similar spelling of the letter "s" in the form close to "f" is present on many other cards. For example, on the map by Daniel Keller, published in 1590, Russia is written as Ruffia. On the same map, the region of Muscovy is written as Mofcouia.

It turns out that the Slavic words "slava" or "slavius" could well have been read by the scribes of the chronicles as "flavius". Thus, the ancient Roman name Flavius, i.e. Flavius turned out to be a slight modification of the name Slavius.

If this is really so, then instead of a large number of “yellow” Roman emperors, we again get the emperors-Slavius.

But since the two Roman names Claudius and Flavius, most likely, had a common Slavic root "glory", it is possible to assume that one name meant "glorious", and the other - "Slav" or "Slavic".

In this case, for example, the name of the emperor Flavius Claudius Jovian could not have been Lame Yellow Jovian, but Glorious Slav Ivan. Apparently it was no coincidence that Flavius Claudius Jovian, remembering his Slavic origin and professing Christianity, after his election as emperor, restored Christianity in the Roman Empire, which had been curtailed in rights by his predecessor, and returned all its privileges to the church.

Emperor Flavius Claudius Constantine was also a Christian, apparently the Glorious Slav Constantine.

Thus, it turns out that some of the names of the ancient Roman emperors had pronounced Slavic roots. First of all, this refers to the names Claudius and Flavius, which most likely meant not “lame” and “yellow”, but “glorious” and “Slavic” or “Slav”.

In this case, the dynasty of the Roman emperors Claudia turns from a mysterious dynasty of lame emperors into an understandable dynasty of Slavic emperors. And the dynasty of French kings Louis turns into a dynasty of French Slavic kings.

And, perhaps, one less mystery.

Literature.

Sextus Aurelius Victor. About Caesars / Bulletin of Ancient History-1964. No. 3 p.229-230

Ammianus Marcellinus. History / Per. from lat. Yu. A. Kulakovsky and A. I. Sonny. Issue 1 - 3. Kiev, 1906-1908.

Adrian Goldsworthy. In the name of Rome. People who created the empire, M.-AST. Transitbook, 2006

Morozov N. A. Christ. The history of mankind in natural science coverage vols. 1-7 - M.-L.: Gosizdat, 1924-1932; 2nd ed. - M.: Kraft +, 1998

Tvorogov OV Sofia Chronograph and “Chronicle of John Malala” / TODRL, Nauka, 1983 vol. 37 p. 188-221

Nosovsky G. V., Fomenko A. T.. Tsar of Slavs: Neva, 2005

Karl Faulman Schriftzeichen und Alphabete aller Zeiten und Völker. Marix, Wiesbaden 2004. Reprint of 1880 edition