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:''This page is about the Latin praenomen. For a list of persons with this name, see Octavius (disambiguation).'' Octavius is a Latin ''praenomen'', or personal name. It was never particularly common at Rome, but may have been used more frequently in the countryside. The feminine form is ''Octavia''. The name gave rise to the patronymic ''gens Octavia'', and perhaps also to ''gens Otacilia''. A late inscription gives the abbreviation Oct. The praenomen Octavius is best known from Octavius Mamilius, the prince of Tusculum, and son-in-law of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last king of Rome, who was slain by Titus Herminius at the Battle of Lake Regillus about 498 B.C. Members of ''gens Mamilia'' afterward came to Rome, and the name must have been used by the ancestors of the Octavii and perhaps the Octacilii, but examples of the praenomen are scarce. It must have been used from on occasion throughout the Roman Republic and well into imperial times. The name was used by ''gens Maecia'', and an Octavia Valeria Vera lived at Ticinum in the 2nd or 3rd century; and indeed, the name has survived to the present day.〔Titus Livius, ''Ab Urbe Condita'', books I-II〕〔''Dictionary of Greek & Roman Biography & Mythology''〕〔Mika Kajava, ''Roman Female Praenomina: Studies in the Nomenclature of Roman Women'' (1994)〕 ==Origin and Meaning of the Name== The Latin word for ''eighth'' is ''octavus'', and this is the root of the praenomen, although as a name it is nearly always found with an "-i stem," ''Octavius'' or ''Octavia'' instead of ''Octavus'' or ''Octava''. This is also the case with other praenomina, including ''Marcia'' and ''Titia'', the feminine forms of ''Marcus'' and ''Titus''.〔''Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft''〕〔George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', vol. VIII (1897)〕〔''Oxford Classical Dictionary'', 3rd Ed. (1996)〕〔 Octavius falls into the same class as the masculine praenomina ''Quintus, Sextus, Septimus, Nonus'', and ''Decimus'', as well as the feminine names ''Prima, Secunda, Tertia, Quarta, Quinta, Sexta, Septima, Nona'', and ''Decima''. It was probably given to an eighth child, an eighth son, or an eighth daughter. However, it has also been postulated that such names could refer to the month of the year in which a child was born. This explanation does not seem to account for the relative scarcity of ''Septimus'', ''Octavius'', or ''Nonus''. But because parents were generally free to choose whichever name they happened to like, irrespective of its meaning, it may be that such names were given for both of these reasons.〔〔 In the form ''Uchtave'', the praenomen was also used by the Etruscans.〔Jacques Heurgon, ''Daily Life of the Etruscans'' (1964)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Octavius (praenomen)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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