Galba (cognomen)

Galba is an ancient Roman cognomen borne by a branch of the patrician gens Sulpicia.

The name is sometimes thought to be Celtic in origin, from a root related to Old Irish golb, "paunchy, fat."^[1] Suetonius offers four possible derivations, including the Gaulish galba meaning "fat."^[2]

Republican Rome

• Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus, consul and dictator of the 3rd century BC, who fought against Hannibal
• Servius Sulpicius Galba (consul 144 BC), soldier, politician and orator of the 2nd century BC who served as consul in 144 BC
• Servius Sulpicius Galba (consul 108 BC), soldier, politician and orator of the 2nd century BC who served as consul in 108 BC
• Servius Sulpicius Galba (praetor 54 BC), politician and military officer of the 1st century BC

Imperial era

• Galba, Servius Sulpicius Galba, Roman Emperor AD 68–69

Celts

• Galba, a king of the Suessiones of Belgic Gaul in the 1st century BC

References

1. See Xavier Delamarre, entry on galba, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (Éditions Errance, 2003), p. 174, and D. Ellis Evans, Gaulish personal names: a study of some Continental Celtic formations (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967), pp. 293, 297, 349.
2. Other derivations from galbanum, a gum used in ancient medicine and chemical preparations; the medical treatment galbeum; and galbae, a type of insect: Suetonius, Galba 3, Bill Thayer's edition at LacusCurtius.