The Name of Rome
Further information: History of RomeThe name of the city is generally considered to refer to Romulus, but there are other hypotheses. Jean-Jacques Rousseau suggested Greek "ῥώμη" ("rhōmē"), meaning "strength, vigor". Another hypothesis refers the name to Roma, who supposedly was the daughter of Aeneas or Evander. The Basque scholar Manuel de Larramendi thought that the origin was the Basque word "orma" (modern Basque "horma"), meaning "wall".
Rome is also called the "Urbs", the word that in later Latin generically referred to any town or city. "Urbs" may ultimately have come from "urvus", the furrow cut by a plough, in this case, by that of Romulus.
The name "Romulus" is probably a back-formation; that is, the name "Romulus" was derived from the word "Rome". The suffix "-ulus" is masculine and a diminutive, so "Romulus" means "the little boy from Rome."
Read more about this topic: Founding Of Rome
Famous quotes containing the word rome:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)