Hi. I’m writing a sci-fi novel set in the future with a resurrected Roman Empire. I’m trying to include some Latin terms for added realism.
For the ruler of this empire, I want to use a Latin title rather than the word emperor. As far as I can tell, the Latin equivalent is imperator, and empress translates to imperatrix. Can someone please verify that for me.
Also, I’m looking for a Latin equivalent to “imperial heir”. That’s the title I use to refer to the male heir to the empire.
Finally, is there a good Latin term for illegitimate sons or illegitimate children? This is for the children of the emperor’s concubines, who have no claim to the throne. Preferably something a little more polite than the English “bastards”.
Thank you. That’s very helpful. I’ve been thinking some more about the illegitimate sons. The imperator is a real SOB, even toward his own sons. He wouldn’t think twice about referring to illegitimate ones as “imperial bastards”. What would be the correct translation for that?
Also, what would be the translation for “little bastard”? The imperator calls his oldest illegitimate son by that name.
For “emperor” you might try “the Caesar” or “the August one” (Augustus in Latin), and, if you use “the August one” for the emperor, you might use “the Caesar” for the emperor-in-waiting. See Lewis & Short, Caesar:
Make it clear what these titles mean, but do so subtly.
“Crown prince” is perhaps not a meaningful concept here. Roman law didn’t confer on the son of an emperor a hereditary right of succession–the absence of any procedure for succession was a major problem throughout the imperial period, with the exception, perhaps, of the four Antonine emperors in the second century. They adopted their successors so that those whom they designated would have a head-start when they died. This broke down after the emperor Marcus designated his own son Commodus instead of someone more level-headed.
Imperator (whence “emperor”) was more of a military title. And there was no special term or rank for the wife of an emperor; the word imperatrix would mean, literally, a female military commander, but was used humorously or ironically to mean a mistress, “the general of my heart.”
After a little digging in the online dictionaries, I came up with bastardus and bastardi. So for imperial bastards (illegitimate sons), would it be bastardi imperiales? If it’s right, it has the advantage of being easily understood by non-Latin readers.
Also, someone else translated emperor’s son for me as filius imperatoris. What’s the difference between imperialis and imperatoris? Google translates the latter as simply commander.
hi, these titles change throughout the different periods of the roman empire, and also differed in different contexts - Augustus might call himself Princeps but the senate gave him the title of Augustus etc.
the most frequent title for imperial heir that you see – as hylander already said – is adding “Caesar” into your name upon your adoption (i.e. making you heir). then when you became emperor you got other titles - “Augustus”, “Imperator”, etc etc. “Augusta” is a title that applied to certain key females linked to the emperor.
the easiest way to see this is to go to wiki, look up augustus, look at his name in the box on the right, and then click “successor” to see the next emperor, and keep doing this over and over until the end of the empire – and you’ll see in this way the way the names changed when people became imperial heirs (i.e. upon adoption) and then upon becoming emperor (i.e. upon ascension).
of course you aren’t going to find this for all emperors, because there were crazy times of usurpers etc, you see this far better during dynasties.
there seems to be an assumption in your initial post that the oldest son was the heir and people born outside the marriage were illegitimate - that’s not how it worked, as hylander already said. by far the best thing i can recommend is start listening to this podcast: http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/. episode 52 has a little bit on titles, but really you need to listen to the whole thing to get a sense of all the titles that people accrued at different points in the history of the empire as they made their way towards the ultimate prize. plus, the podcast is just really really good. i discovered it when i found out that another podcast i listen to (history of philosophy without any gaps) was inspired by it. cheers, chad
Actually, the imperial heir is the imperator’s second oldest son, which creates story conflict with the older but illegitimate son.
I may have to rework my naming conventions. I’ve become aware, since starting the story two years ago, that Augustus and Caesar both became part of titles of later emperors. At one point, I couldn’t figure out if Augustus Caesar was just another name for Julius Caesar. Roman naming conventions over time were quite fluid, especially when they rename themselves upon ascension (e.g., Octavian) and make names into titles.
Currently, my imperial dynasty is House Titanis, which I definitely need to change since it’s Greek. I was thinking of using Caesar instead. So it would become the Caesarian dynasty, which seems fitting since he’s probably the most famous Roman. If I were to found a new Roman Empire, I would definitely pick something like Caesar as the dynasty’s name, even though, technically, he wasn’t an emperor.
In the story, Augustus VII is the father. Apollo III is the son. I chose Augustus based on the idea that the name/title had evolved to become a favorite first name within the dynasty (hence the VII). I ultimately chose to avoid using praenomen, nomen, and cognomen, since that requires too much explanation and can be too confusing. I’m basically trying to fit Roman names/culture into forms that modern readers can easily understand without a history lesson, hopefully without bastardizing actual history completely. Ditto for military titles, although I did make two attempts at using those too. Couldn’t quite make it work.
All this would yield Imperator Augustus Caesar VII and Filius Imperatoris Apollo Caesar III. I prefer filius imperatoris to heres imperialis, as the former can include a little fictional culture. Specifically, Apollo is Augustus’s only “acknowledged” son. He’s the only one of his brothers who gets that title. The imperator’s illegitimate children will be generally referred to as bastardi imperiales by those living in that society. I certainly wouldn’t want to be identified that way, yielding resentment and more story conflict.
hi, obviously we can’t say what’s best for your book, but if you are trying to find titles actually used i think it would make sense for you to check out the titles of an actual roman imperial family in that situation. if you’re talking about a dad emperor with two sons, that brings to mind vespasian and his two sons titus and domitian who both later became emperors - ie the flavian dynasty.
according to the cassius dio epitome of book 65, when vespy became emperor both sons were then given the title Caesar. now titus went on to become emperor first as eldest son, but if you’re trying to play at the younger son being the heir then you will need to search around for a good title for this. Caracalla was called Imperator destinatus as heir, but that would be a hodge-podge timing wise. i’m guessing that people into historical fiction would like to see a consistent approach to these types of things, but that’s up to you. cheers, chad
Thanks, Chad. I’m going to let it ferment in my brain for a while to see if I can come up with a better overlap between true history, the more limited view of Roman history that most people have, and what the story needs. I don’t need to decide until the 3rd draft, which is at least 6 months away.
This thread has been very helpful to me, which I greatly appreciate.
What would be the correct translation for that?