Sertor is a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

praenomen, or personal name. It was never common, and is not known to have been used by any prominent families at Rome. It gave rise to the patronymic gens Sertoria. The feminine form was probably ''Sertora''. The name was not regularly abbreviated, but is sometimes found as Sert. The praenomen Sertor was used by the plebeian gentes '' Mimesia, Varisidia, Vedia'', and perhaps '' Resia'', and must once have been used by the ancestors of the '' gens Sertoria'', whose most distinguished member was the Roman general

Quintus Sertorius Quintus Sertorius (c. 126 – 73 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who led a large-scale rebellion against the Roman Senate on the Iberian peninsula. He had been a prominent member of the populist faction of Cinna and Marius. During the l ...

. The name was familiar to the scholar

Marcus Terentius Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...

, who described it as an antique praenomen, no longer in general use by the 1st century BC. As with other praenomina, it may have been more common, and survived longer, in the countryside; at least one example from Umbria dates to Varro's time or later.

Origin and meaning

The anonymous ''Liber de Praenominibus'' derives Sertor from ''satio'', a planted field; while Festus derived it from the same root as ''adsertor'', a person who asserts the freedom of another, or claims him as his own. These appear to be examples of

false etymology A false etymology (fake etymology, popular etymology, etymythology, pseudo-etymology, or par(a)etymology) is a popular but false belief about the origin or derivation of a specific word. It is sometimes called a folk etymology, but this is also a ...

. Chase believed that the praenomen was probably of Umbrian origin, and was the equivalent of the Latin word ''servator'', meaning "protector" or "preserver". Its meaning would thus be similar to the more common praenomen ''

Servius Servius is the name of: * Servius (praenomen), the personal name * Maurus Servius Honoratus, a late fourth-century and early fifth-century grammarian * Servius Tullius, the Roman king * Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the 1st century BC Roman jurist See ...

''. However, the name seems to have been used throughout Italy, for the Mimesii were apparently Latins, while the Sertorii were of Sabine extraction; and in any case Varro considered it to be Latin, if obsolete. An inscription belonging to the obscure ''gens Resia'' gives the praenomen ''Fertor'', which some scholars amend to ''Sertor''. Chase postulates that it might be a separate praenomen, meaning "supporter". The Etruscan praenomen ''Sethre'' might be derived from Sertor.George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', vol. VIII (1897)

References

{{Praenomina Ancient Roman praenomina