[ANSTHRLD] Re: Optio

Tim McDaniel tmcd at panix.com
Tue Sep 7 11:44:15 PDT 2004


On Tue, 7 Sep 2004, Maridonna <maridonna at maridonna.com> wrote:
> I have a Roman name for my second persona which I considered late
> Empire, and it was registered with no problem.  I'm wondering if the
> time of earlier "order" names will be a problem?

There's a precedent disallowing pharaonic Egyptian names:
Merit-ankht-Seker of Sakkara, Caid returns, March 1995.  The climactic
paragraph:

       If I may quote Harpy: "The cultures of classical Greece and
       Rome were accessible to medieval Europeans (at least, cultured
       and literate ones) from written records -- records that were
       deliberately and consciously preserved.  But the language of
       the hieroglyphs was dead; knowledge of the writing system lost
       completely.  Recall that it was only with the late 18th century
       discovery of the Rosetta Stone, with its trilingual inscription
       including Greek, that "modern" people were again able to try to
       decipher the writings of ancient Egypt.  A classical Roman
       name, or a Biblical Hebrew name would in some way be accessible
       to a medieval European (highly educated scholar), but an
       ancient Egyptian name would not be something that he could have
       any knowledge of or familiarity with.  There is simply no
       connection available."  In other words, yes, there is a
       difference.  Ancient Greece and Rome "had contact" with Europe
       during "the Middle Ages and Renaissance" through their
       writings; pharaonic Egypt did not.  Ancient Egyptian names thus
       appear to be outside the scope and domain of the SCA, much as
       Australian flora and fauna or Australian aboriginal names are.

There was a Renaissance revival of and interest in Roman usages,
so I can imagine a revival involving "optio".

But from my limited knowledge, I wonder whether "Award of the Optio"
would be shot down immediately on the grounds of Optio being a job
title or rank, not an order or award.  It might have to be "Optio of
the Sable Star" (shudder) or something.

Danielis de Lincolino
-- 
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at panix.com



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