Numerius (praenomen)

[5][4][6] The name was used more widely amongst the plebeians and in the countryside, and was relatively common in southern Italy.

[6] In Roman law, the name Numerius Negidius was used to refer to a hypothetical defendant.

[7] Numerius was generally connected with Numeria, the goddess of childbirth, and according to Varro was given to children who were born quickly and easily.

[8] Elsewhere, Varro states that the feminine Numeria was not used as a praenomen, but this is contradicted by the Liber de Praenominibus, a short treatise on praenomina usually appended to Valerius Maximus.

[12] Under the spelling Numesius, it also appears in one of the earliest Etruscan inscriptions, on a vase from Tarquinii dating to about 700 BC.

The Praenestine fibula , a brooch dating to the early seventh century BC, inscribed with one of the oldest known inscriptions in Latin : Manios med fhe fhaked Numasioi , "Manius made me for Numerius". [ 1 ]