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 Post subject: Nomen est Omen
PostPosted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 7:30 am 
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Noxius
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Most of you already know the list of the meaning of each gladiators name. The info is mostly is from the interwebs, especially wikipedia, but I didn't keep track of the sources. Some of it was mentioned before by others, thanks for your help!

"1st wave"

Aquila = Eagle, named after the standard of the legions

Urbicus = Quintus Lollius Urbicus campaigned against the british tribes - fits with his history of campaigning far from home

Viatrix = ancient form of Beatrix, means "blessed woman"

Aemilia = Name of one of the most ancient patrician houses at Rome. Aemulus means "rival"

Marcus Furius = Marcus derived from Ares, God of war. Furius is another patrician house of Rome.

Lupa = female wolf, such an animal plays an important role in the founding legend of Rome

Iason = Hero of greek mythology, name means "healer" or "physician"

Infelix = means "the unlucky"

Noxius = translates to "criminal" or "guilty", fitting the back story

Ban-Luca = Tricky one. Haven't quite figured it out and maybe there is nothing to figure out. It might be a play on San Luca, an italian town, or Lucania. Luca is the italian version of Luke, meaning "man from Lucania". In the british context, Ban was the father of Sir Lancelot in the King Arthur story. All not very satisfying ideas, but most of the LegioXIII has connection to the arthurian legend...

Hermes = greek god of transitions and boundaries and conductor of souls into the afterlife. Most scholars derive "Hermes" from Greek herma (a stone, roadside shrine or boundary marker)

Tiet-Khebi = Tiet is a symbol of Isis, supposed to represent eternal life and ressurection. Khepi seems to be the assyrian word for harvest.

Vargr = means „Wolf“

Frigge = Frigg is Odin’s wife and the mother of Baldr. The name means „beloved lady“

Sven = Young man

Mago = Magician/Conjurer, funnily also the name of a genus of south-american spiders

Urien = Urien Rheged, was a late 6th century king of Rheged, an early British kingdom, who later became „King Urien of Gore" in the arthurian legend, husband of Morgan le Fay.

Othos Mentulus = Otho was a very unsuccessful roman Emperor who ruled for three months before committing suicide. Othos is also a town in Greece. Mentulus means Cock.

Micon = name of an artist from ancient Athens and still in use as a family name. Couldn't figure out the meaning. As mentioned by Roar: "name of a shepherd in Vergil's 3. eclogue"

Gaius Pallidus = Gaius is a common roman name with unknown origin. In this context it might be the male form of Gaia, greek goddess of the Earth. Pallidus means pale.

Bjarrhvit = hvit means white, Bjare is a danish variant of Bjorn, meaning bear. So her english name could be "White Bear".

Ur-Kek= Kek is the egyptian name for the primordial darkness, depicted as a frog-headed man or a snake-headed woman. „Ur“ as a suffix means „the Elder“

Septimus & Nero = Septimus means "the seventh". Nero means "the black one"

Leo = means "lion"

Euryale = One of the gorgons in greek mythology, name means "far-roaming" or "she of the wide briny sea"

Wendigo - malevolent cannibalistic spirit from nativ american legends that could possess humans or a monster that humans could physically transform into.

Proximo – „the next“ or „the most recent“. Proximos appereance is inspired by the Questing Beast of the arthurian legend.

Zahra & Sereqet = Zarah is a derivate of Sarah, meaning „lady“ or „princess“. It is intersting that a egyptian fighter bears a hebrew name. Sereqet is an alternative form of Serket, the goddess of healing poisonous stings and bites in Egyptian mythology, originally the deification of the scorpion.

Hroka = means „Crow“

Caho-Ta = Most likely from french "cahoter", meaning to jolt or bump. I think the correct translation is something like "he who has jolted".


"2nd wave"


Sulla = Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, famous roman general, one of few who were awarded the grass crown, one of Rome's rarest military honors (given to those whose actions saved an entire legion or army). He marched his army to Rome twice and installed himself as dictator the second time just to step down after fixing the mess others caused.

Anum = Pretty unclear as far as I can tell. Anum is the name of a tribe and a river in Ghana, and the name is also used for the sumerian god Anu, sky god and king of gods and demons, patron god of Uruk. Rim-Anum was a ruler of ancient Uruk, but not much is known about him.
It is the word for "six" in proto-malaya-polynesian (I think we can rule that one out) and don't get me started on the meaning latin...

Sthenos = An easy one: Sthenos is one of the gorgons in greek mythology, vicious female monsters with brass hands, sharp fangs and "hair" made of living venomous snakes. She's a sister of Euryales and is described as the most independent and ferocious gorgon, having killed more men than both of her sisters combined. Has been described as having a scaly head, a boar's tusks, bronzed hands, a protruding tongue, glaring eyes and a snake around the waist as a belt, some of those features can be found on her miniature. Name literally means "vigour" or "valency"

Acerbus = Acerbus is latin for rough, violent, severe and grievous. Pretty fitting for this monster ;)

Any further help and new ideas are much appreciated!

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Last edited by Desaster on Thu Mar 12, 2015 4:32 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Nomen est Omen
PostPosted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 2:32 pm 
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Noxius
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Thanks for all the research - that definitely gives some clues toward possible intended painting schemes and helps to add a bit of backstory to the characters as well. Nicely done!

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 Post subject: Re: Nomen est Omen
PostPosted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 5:44 pm 
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Noxius
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It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the name directly but the RRG guys at one point said that Lupa's hammer is named Romulus/Remus.

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 Post subject: Re: Nomen est Omen
PostPosted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 5:51 pm 
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Noxius
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The significance of that is that the legend of Romulus/Remus revolves around the fact that they were abandoned and subsequently raised by a female wolf. Hence, Lupa.

Edit: due to historical brain fart

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 Post subject: Re: Nomen est Omen
PostPosted: Sat Jun 22, 2013 6:47 am 
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Noxius
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Micon is also the name of a shepherd in Vergil's 3. eclogue. It could be derived from mico, meaning to vibrate, move quickly, tremble, etc., but it's highly unlikely. I'm almost positive it's just derived from the Greek proper name Mikon you've already mentioned. It doesn't carry any meaning in Greek, mikon is a common misspelling of mikron, meaning small, but intentional misspellings seem rather implausible in this case.


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 Post subject: Re: Nomen est Omen
PostPosted: Thu Dec 26, 2013 6:03 am 
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Noxius
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And with the new preview of Sulla:

Sulla, or Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, was a famous roman general, one of few who were awarded the grass crown, one of Rome's rarest military honors (given to those whose actions saved an entire legion or army). He marched his army to Rome twice and installed himself as dictator the second time just to step down after fixing the mess others caused.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulla

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 Post subject: Re: Nomen est Omen
PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 8:51 am 
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Noxius
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Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2013 12:19 pm
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Location: New Zealand
Caho-Ta:
Most likely from french "cahoter", meaning to jolt or bump. I think the correct translation is something like "he who has jolted".

Anum:
Pretty unclear as far as I can tell. Anum is the name of a tribe and a river in Ghana, and the name is also used for the sumerian god Anu, sky god and king of gods and demons, patron god of Uruk. Rim-Anum was a ruler of ancient Uruk, but not much is known about him.
It is the word for "six" in proto-malaya-polynesian (I think we can rule that one out) and don't get me started on the meaning latin...

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 Post subject: Re: Nomen est Omen
PostPosted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 8:41 am 
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This thread is greatly appreciated!

It has been a while since I had my Latin classes! :)

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 Post subject: Re: Nomen est Omen
PostPosted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 4:30 pm 
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Noxius
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Added Sthenos and Acerbus to the list.

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