Book Description

Roman Names on Crete: Immigration, Enfranchisement, Integration utilizes the evidence of Roman names in order to document and analyze a wide range of Cretan responses to the Romans and the Roman empire, from influence and citizenship to integration. Three foundational chapters examine the social and historical significance of different Roman onomastic formulae, and the geographical and chronological distribution of Roman names attested for Crete and the Cretans. Three more chapters capitalize on the testimony of the onomastic record to assess systematically the social and historical significance of different types of Roman names: non-imperial and imperial family names (nomina) and personal names (cognomina). A final chapter treats the combined evidence of the preceding three chapters for the immigration of Romans and Italians to Crete, the enfranchisement and integration of Cretans into the Roman Empire, and the integration of Romans into Cretan society. An extensive, annotated catalog presents the evidence utilized for the analysis of the social and historical significance of Roman names attested on Crete and for Cretans; before each non-imperial family name, textboxes assemble the evidence for its (un)commonness and significance in the Mediterranean-wide Roman world.