Octavian

A few days ago somebody asked my name. Nothing in common until now until I’ve been asked where does my name comes from and what does it mean.

I knew that my parents gave me this name after a Romanian poet  (Octavian Goga) and that the first Roman emperor has a similar name. As Romanian is at his origin a Latin language there would be a very big chance that my name means something in Latin. I searched on Wikipedia about my name and about the emperor.

Born Gaius Octavius Thurinus (23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), he was adopted posthumously by his great-uncle Gaius Julius Caesar in 44 BC, and between then and 31 BC was officially named Gaius Julius Caesar. In 27 BC the Senate awarded him the honorific Augustus (”the revered one”), and thus consequently he was Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus. Because of the various names he bore, it is common to call him Octavius when referring to events between 63 and 44 BC, Octavian (or Octavianus) when referring to events between 44 and 27 BC, and Augustus when referring to events after 27 BC. (read more)

After further searching I found out that the first name Octavius was not common in Rome. It was more often in the countryside. This name is also similar to octa (eight) respectively octavus (the eight). Apparently at that time parents gave to the children names like the first, the second…. the tent. Names like this for boys are Quintus, Sextus, Septimus, Nonus, and Decimus or for girls Prima, Secunda, Tertia, Quarta, Quinta, Sexta, Septima, Nona, and Decima.

My next question was the eighth what? The most common probabilities are:

• he was the eighth born child or boy in the family
• he was born in the eight month of the year

From what I have read about Octavius it was never mentioned to have any other brothers or sisters and also he was born in September (which would be the 9th month in the year). This seemed as a dead end but the I remembered that the calendar we are using nowadays (the Gregorian Calendar) is based on the Julian Calendar with a minor change(in the Julian Calendar – which is actually Octavianus Augustus – the year lasts 365,25 days and the Gregorian one 11 minutes less). The Roman Calendar is a lunar one. and the first month is March. That means that September is the 7th month. The strange thing is that the Romans where calling the day of the month.

Calends: (from which come the word calender) is the first day of the month (originally it meant new moon). After the middle of a month, for example July, they were calling the date as n days before the calends (month) of august. So 23 September would be a.d. VIII Kal. October (a.d. stands for ante diem N and means the N-th day before).

From all this I assume that the Octavius in this case is coming from his birthday.

The big coincidence regarding the whole story is, that if would tell my birthday in Latin it would be a.d. XI Kal. Oct.

I am born eleven days before the eight month of the Roman year.