I’m interested in Latin forms of address.?

Question

I’m interested in history of ancient Rome, especially, in learning of everyday life of the ancient Romans. My favourite ancient writer is Marcus Valerius Martial, because he narrated of everyday life mainly and not about historical events only. While reading his fine epigrams I was interested in some questions, for example: how the Roman public libraries did look like? Had the ancient Romans the words of address to a stranger, equivalent for the English modern day words “Mr.” and “Mrs.”? I understand that the Romans addressed to their friends: “My friend!” and a servant addressed to his/her master: “O, my lord!” And what about addressing to a stranger? It is most interesting, and unfortunately I could not understand it reading Martial’s writings.

Answer 1

There are no direct equivalents to Mr or Mrs in Latin; a person's status is denoted by the lengthy Roman names comprised of at least 3 parts: the praenomen, nomen, and cognomen. The first is the formal name, sometimes meaning place in birth order, the nomen is the common name, so to speak, and the cognomen is the family name. Additional names get added to the original 3 through marriage, adoption, inheritance, patronage, or accomplishment.

The general greeting in Latin is "salve", literally, "be well," sort of equivalent to "hello." Otherwise, one could say "bonum diem" for "good day."

Answer 2

The best and most thorough research on address in Classical Latin has been done by Eleanor Dickey, Her book is called "Latin Forms of Address: From Plautus to Apuleius", Oxford: Oxford University Press 2002
ISBN-10: 0-19-924287-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-924287-0
You should be able to find it in almost any university library and in better stocked public libraries.

Answer 3

there are two books that will help you alot Latin For all Occasions and More Everyday Latin For all Occasions They helped me with alot of latin phrases and some history and word usage.