On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up, Berkeley – Los Angeles 2014. Beard, The Roman Triumph, Cambridge (MA) 2007. Ballester, Antroponimia y Humor en la Literatura Romana, Liburna 7, 2014, 38–42. Search in Google Scholarīallester 2014: X. Baldwin, Acclamations in the Historia Augusta, Athenaeum 59, 1981, 138–149. Sexual Allusions in Suetonius’ Galba, Latomus 71, 2012, 1077–1087. Search in Google ScholarĪnagnostou-Laoutides – Charles 2012: E. Ames, El título imperial Romano y la problemática del pricipado, EClás 41.116, 1999, 49–64. Alföldy, Die Bauinschriften des Aquäduktes von Segovia und des Amphitheaters von Tarraco. Geschichte, Geschichtsschreibung und Geschichtsbetrachtung. Straub (ed.), Historia-Augusta Colloquium 1972–1974, Bonn 1976, 11–21 (= Die Krise des römischen Reiches. Alföldy, Zwei Schimpfnamen des Kaisers Elagabal. Alföldi, Die Ausgestaltung des monarchischen Zeremoniells am römischen Kaiserhof, MDAI(R) 49, 1934, 3–118. Aldrette, Gestures and Acclamations in Ancient Rome, Baltimore – London 1999. Search in Google ScholarĪldrette 1999: G. Aja Sánchez, Imprecaciones senatoriales contra Cómmodo en la Historia Augusta, Polis 5, 1993, 5–21. I am very grateful to Prof. Peter Rodds who read the first version of this paper and did much to improve my English. This work was made possible through the financial support by the Russian Foundation for Humanities, project 16–01–00297, “Unofficial Names and Sobriquets of Political Figures in the Ancient World as a Cultural-Historical and Political Phenomenon”. All the efforts which many emperors took to control their nomina were ultimately powerless against the strength of the inevitable humorous counter-naming by the ruled. Imperial nicknames were a counter-hegemonic transcript and a weapon in the struggle for symbolic capital. The political system of the Principate and its very atmosphere of hypocrisy did promote double meaning and double thinking reflected in the double system of the rulers’ nomenclature. Many nicknames and appellatives were of ephemeral, ad hoc nature, their sense and effect largely dependent on the particular context but, taken as a whole, they demonstrate the possible scope of and common trends in naming practice. An apt derisive nickname marked anti-values, mocked the ruler’s badness and could vilify his reputation to the extreme, stigmatise his personality, or else become a widely-used quasi- cognomen. All in all, most imperial nicknames, both authentic and made-up, reveal a rather good quality of humour and mockery constructed by expressive linguistic devices and various rhetorical tropes. But, for the very same purposes, Greek and Roman writers could invent some names and sobriquets, following special rhetorical and moralising principles, or mere love of ridicule. They survived for us because of ancient authors’ interest in using such material for their literary and ideological intentions, particularly to express better the individual characteristics of the historical personages. Many of the known imperial nicknames and appellatives belong to a specific kind of folklore and express popular public opinion. But in what form? That's the true question.The article examines unofficial imperial nicknames, sobriquets and appellatives, from Octavian Augustus to Julian the Apostate, in the light of traditions of Roman political humour, and argues that in the political field during the Principate there were two co-existing competing modes of emperors’ naming: along with an official one, politically loyal, formalised and institutionally legitimised, there existed another – unofficial, sometimes oppositional and even hostile towards individual emperors, frequently licentious, humorously coloured and, in this regard, deeply rooted in Roman Republican traditions of political humour.
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We're going beyond the usual suspects of UFC Unleashed. These are the 25 worst nicknames in the history of MMA.įair warning: You're not liable to see a lot of famous faces on here. Rowling, the Gregg Easterbrook of MMA nickname slideshows.įor now, here emerges a second tome, and one even longer than the first. Now, it appears I'm a bit of a glutton for punishment! Or at least someone with the inability to rein in one's editorial. That is to say, I knew that I had suffered dearly for my art-my slideshow art-but I had emerged on the other side a better man. I found writing that document to be quite a struggle, and when I emerged, I knew what Francis Ford Coppola felt after finally completing Apocalypse Now.
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In the spring, I published a treatise on the 15 best nicknames among active fighters in this great sport of mixed martial arts.