Resumen de Dérivation anthroponymique et déviation politique dans la littérature latine à la fin de la République romaine et au début du Principat
Guillaume de Méritens de Villeneuve
Adjectival derivatives are frequently used in Latin literature to evoke possession or affairs relating to a character, but we observe a more specific use of these terms when the subject is of a political nature: the derivative is then overloaded with connotations, pejorative in the majority of cases. Thus, the derived names are those of the imperatores of the crisis of the Republic – Marius and Sylla; Caesar and Pompey – and more generally people whose actions contributed to civil unrest: Cinna, Sertorius or Clodius for example. We thus see that an anthroponym derivative appears when the action of a character is considered problematic. This article studies the evolution of this phenomenon in the Latin literature of the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Principate.
