mountainman

I am currently browsing through a book by Elsa Gibson:
"The 'Christians for Christians' Inscriptions of Phrygia.
Greek Texts, Translation and Commentary (or via: amazon.co.uk)" (1978)
It discusses early Christian funerary texts.

Many greek inscriptions are provided with
english translations.

A large number of them commence with, and
use repeatedly the term "Aurelios" as a type
of honorific for people. eg: Aurelios Theodorus.

Does this term simply mean "golden"?
As a type of honorific, and is the term
"Aurelia" a gender related term.
(eg: "Aurelia Domna")

Thanks for any assistance.

mountainman

The author calls "Aurelios" a praenomen.
This appears to mean "first name".

In the sample of 45 inscriptions provided
there were 25 instances of "Aurelios".
Can someone clarify this please. Thx.

Roger Pearse

In the early empire when a man acquired Roman citizenship he also took on the name of his patron or sponsor. When Caracalla extended this to the whole empire, they all took on his name, Aurelius, for the same reason, and consequently it is very common in papyri and inscriptions from then on.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

mountainman

Thanks for this explanation Roger ... I guess
this means "Aurelius Alexandros" could be
loosely translated as "(Roman) citizen Alex".

mountainman

Using Ben's post I have used the greek text in attempt to reconstruct
the phrase "Christians for christians" as follows:

Xρειστιανοι Xρειστιανοις

Is this the correct sequence of appropriate letters?
And if so, how is it thought that the word was derived?

mountainman

Hello Ben! Is this the appropriate Greek spelling?