Volesus (praenomen)

This page is about the Latin praenomen. For the founder of gens Valeria, see Valerius.

Volesus, Volusus, or Volero is a Latin praenomen, or personal name, which was occasionally used during the period of the Roman Republic, and briefly revived in imperial times. It gave rise to the patronymic gentes Valeria and Volusia. The feminine form is Volesa or Volusa. The name was not normally abbreviated, but occasionally appears with the abbreviation Vol.^[1][2]

The praenomen Volesus, also spelled Volusus, and perhaps also Valesus, is best known from Volesus, the founder of gens Valeria, who was said to have come to Rome with Titus Tatius, king of the Sabine town of Cures, during the reign of Romulus. The name was used by the early Valerii, first as praenomen, then as cognomen; the praenomen was occasionally revived by that great patrician house, which used it as late as the 1st century AD The form Volero was regularly used by the plebeian gens Publilia. The name must also once have been used by gens Volusia, and perhaps also by the gentes Condetia and Vecilia.^[3][4]

Origin and Meaning of the Name

It is generally assumed that Volesus was originally an Oscan praenomen which came to Rome with the founder of the Valerii. However, the name may nonetheless belong to that class of praenomina which was common to both the Latin and Oscan languages, as it was accepted by the Latin family of the Publilii, and was regarded as Latin by the scholar Marcus Terentius Varro, who listed it amongst several antique praenomina, no longer in general use during the 1st century BC.^[5][6][7]

Volesus is generally thought to be derived from the Latin verb valere, to be strong, or its Oscan cognate. Chase, however, prefers to derive it from volo, to wish or desire.^[8]

Notes

1. Dictionary of Greek & Roman Biography & Mythology
2. Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft
3. Dictionary of Greek & Roman Biography & Mythology
4. George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII (1897)
5. George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII (1897)
6. Dictionary of Greek & Roman Biography & Mythology
7. Marcus Terentius Varro, quoted in De Praenominibus (epitome by Julius Paris)
8. George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII (1897)