[248] COGNOMINATA.

SURNAMES

Antiquissimus ille Italiae princeps, conditorque Comerus Galli cognomentum obtinuit. Regnavit hic, teste Beroso, et colonias suas posuit in regno, quod post Italia dicta est anno Saturni decimo, et regionem suam a suo nomine cognominavit, docuitque illos legem, et iustitiam. Fuit iste Comerus primogenitus Iapeti post diluvium, et Gallus paterno epitheto dictus Arameae, et Hebraeae originis quasi inundatus: Unde Ianigenas, qui Umbros vetustissimos Italiae genuerunt, Gallos veteres progenitores Umbrorum vocat Cato[1], et Solinus[2]{.} Veterum, inquit, Gallorum prolem Umbros esse M. Antonius asseverat. Hos eosdem, quia in clade aquosa imbribus superstites fuerunt, Graece ὄμβρους[3] dictos, scilicet epitheto paterno veterum Gallorum Ianigenarum[4]. Comerus locos, scilicet ubi Ianus avus ante colonias posuerat, a se cognominavit. Nam in {Vetuloniensi} <Volturrenensi[5]> agro est vallis Comera, et Ry Comer{i}us<,> in {Phaliscis} <Faliscis> est regio Comersan, a qua oppidum isola Comersana. {Elusium} <Clusium> quoque antea {Comer} <Camars> solum dicebatur, ut author est Livius[6]. Docuit autem Tuscos legem, atque iura, quae scilicet ante viginti annos, et amplius avus eius Ianus in scriptis illis mandaverat, licet brevibus absoluta.

That very ancient sovereign and founder of Italy Gomer - or Comer - received the surname Gallus. He reigned there, according to Berosus, and founded his colonies in a realm which was later called Italy in the tenth year of Saturn, and called his region after his surname, and he taught them law and justice. This Gomer was the first-born son of Iapetus - of Iaphet - after the Flood, and he was called Gallus by a paternal epithet of Aramaic and Hebrew origin, as if he were flooded. Hence Cato calls the Gauls, ancient progenitors of Umbrians, as descendants of Ianus, who generated the Umbrians, who are the more ancient of Italy, and Solinus says: Marcus Antonius Gnipho asserts that the Umbrians are offspring of ancient Gauls. The latter people, since survived the rains of a water calamity, were called ómbrous in Greek, that is, with the paternal epithet of the ancient Gauls, descendants of Ianus. Gomer gave his name to the place where obviously the ancestor Ianus had formerly founded the colonies. For in Volturrena's – not Vetulonia's - territory there is the Comera valley and the Rei Comero – the river of the king Comerus, in the territory of Falisci there is the region of Comersan, from which results the name of the city Isola Comersana. Also Chiusi formerly was only called Camars, as Livy testifies. He – Gomer - taught the Etruscans the laws and that right which more than twenty years before his ancestor Ianus handed down to them in writing, although expressed in shortened form.

Adaeus quidam e Philippi Macedonum regis militibus Ἀλεκτρυὼν, id est, Gallus cognominabatur. Cuius Heraclides Comicus apud Athenaeum[7] his versibus meminit.
Ἀλεκτρυόνα τὸν τοῦ Φιλίππου παραλαβὼν
Ἀωρὶ κοκκύζοντα καὶ πλανώμενον
Κατέκοψεν· οὐ γὰρ εἶχεν· οὐδέπω λόφον.
Ἕνα κατακόψας μάλα συχνοὺς ἐδείπνισε
Χάρης Ἀθηναίους.

A certain Adaeus, belonging to soldiers of Philip II king of Macedonians, was surnamed Alektryøn, that is, cock. Heraclides, the comic poet, mentioned him by these verses in Athenaeus:
Alektryóna tòn toû Philíppou paralabøn
Aørì kokkýzonta kaì planømenon
Katékopsen; ou gàr eîchen oudépø lóphon.
Héna katakópsas mála sychnoùs edeípnise
Chárës Athënaíous.
After he caught the Cock of Philip, when crowing aforehand, cut him up while wandering around; for he did not yet have the comb. Chares, after cut up one, blew to meal a lot of Athenians.

Nam hic Chares, inquit Eustathius, Athenienses in foro epulis excepit, cum sacrificaret {epicenia} <epicedia> propter pugnam prospere contra Philippi peregrinos milites gestam. Dicit autem intempestive illum cecinisse, eo quod pugnam intempestive aggressus sit, et nondum cristam habuisse, hoc est, inermem sese periculo exposuisse. Super qua re vulgata satis paroemia[8] circumfertur, Φιλίππου ἀλεκτρυών, in eum, qui de levi, et nullius ferme momenti facinore quopiam, perinde ut maximo, laudandoque ab omnibus sese iactat. Apparet enim Charetem eius facti etiam nimium crebro, nimisque insolenter apud populum Atheniensem verba fecisse, quod Alectryonem Philippi confodisset.

For this Chares, says Eustathius of Thessalonica, received Athenians to dinner at market place since he was offering as a sacrifice the dirges on account of the battle successfully waged against the foreign soldiers of Philip. For he says that he - Alektryøn - sang out of time, since he took up the battle ahead of time, and that he did not yet have on himself the comb – the helmet’s crest, that is, he exposed himself to peril without protection. In this regard a rather well-known proverb is peddled, Philíppou alektryøn, the cock of Philip, addressed to him who boasts about some slight and nearly trivial undertaking as if it were of very great moment and a matter of praise by all. For it is clear that Chares talked about that fact too often and too insolently among Athenian people, since he killed the Philip's Alektryon.

{Sulpitius} <Sulpicius> Gallus cognominatus consul Romanus cum M. Marcello insignis commemoratur {fnisse} <fuisse> astrologus, ut qui in exercitu P. Aemilii contra Perseum noctu {ecclypsim} <eclipsim> Lunae mirantibus militibus enarravit. De eo ita scribit Valerius Maximus[9]: {Sulpitii} <Sulpicii> Galli maximum in omni genere literarum recipiendo studium plurimum reipublicae profuit. Nam cum L. Pauli bellum adversum regem Persen gerentis legatus esset, ac serena nocte subito Luna defecisset: eo quod veluti {duro} <diro> quodam monstro perterritus exercitus noster manus cum hoste conserendi fiduciam amisisset, de caeli ratione, et siderum natura peritissime disputando, alacrem eum in aciem misit. Itaque illi inclitae Paulianae victoriae liberales artes Galli aditum dederunt: quia nisi ille metum nostrorum militum vicisset, imperator Romanus vincere hostes non potuisset. Meminit eiusdem Plinius[10] his verbis: Et rationem quidem defectus utriusque (Solis, et Lunae) primus Romani generis in vulgus extulit {Sulpitius} <Sulpicius> Gallus, qui Consul cum M. Marcello fuit: sed tum tribunus militum, solicitudine exercitu liberato, pridie quam Perseus Rex superatus a Paulo est, in concionem ab Imperatore productus ad {praedicandam} <praedicendam> {ecclypsim} <eclipsim>, mox et composito volumine.

Caius Sulpicius, surnamed Gallus, Roman consul with Marcus Claudius Marcellus, is mentioned as a famous astronomer, as he who explained by night the moon eclipse to the astonished soldiers when he was in the army of Paulus Aemilius Lucius against Perseus. Valerius Maximus writes about him as follows: The very great zeal of Sulpicius Gallus towards the learning of every sort of knowledge was of much utility to Republic. For when he was lieutenant of Lucius Paulus, who was then waging war against king Perseus, and suddenly on a cloudless night the moon underwent an eclipse, so that our army frightened as by a dire monster had lost the courage to engage the enemy, Sulpicius, by most learnedly discoursing about the doctrines of heavens and the nature of stars, sent it full of enthusiasm into battle. Thus the liberal arts of Gallus gave the first move to that famous victory of Paulus: for unless he had overwhelmed the fear in our soldiers the Roman general could not have overcome the enemies. Pliny mentions him by these words: And Sulpicius Gallus has been the first of Roman lineage to supply the people with the reason of eclipsing of both (moon and sun), who has been consul with Marcus Claudius Marcellus: but at that time he was military tribune, and having freed the army from anxiety on the day before king Perseus was defeated by Paulus, since he was let by the general on the tribune in order to predict the eclipse, later also a book has been done about.

Galli cognomine gavisus est Cornelius poëtarum laudatissimorum haud infimus, nemini non notus, quem adeo adamavit {Virgilius} <Vergilius>, ut quartum Georgicorum librum a medio in finem usque in illius honorem conscripserit, quem postea, iubente Augusto in Aristaei fabulam commutavit. {Hunc Gallum} <Valerium Largum[11]> tantae procacitatis fuisse ferunt, ut Dion[12] historicus tradat, Procule<i>um cum illi aliquando occurreret, nasum et os manu compressisse, id scilicet significantem, non alicui tutum esse, illo praesente, nec loqui, nec respirare, tam petulantis, et parum modestae linguae erat: quare procacissimum eum appellavit Ovidius[13], et vulgo etiam Anser dicebatur. Hunc et {Virgilius} <Vergilius> intellexit, dum ait[14]: Inter strepere Anser Olores. Quod mox proverbii loco usurpatum est, cum indoctus inter doctos disputat. De hoc ansere ita etiam Propertius[15].

Nec minor {his} <hic> animis, {a}ut si<t>  minor ore, canorus

Anseris indocto {carminis} <carmine> {esset} <cessit> Olor.

Cornelius Gallus, by no means the last of the most praiseworthy Latin poets and unknown to nobody, rejoiced in the surname Gallus, and Vergil loved him so enthusiastically that wrote in his honor the fourth book of Georgics from half until end, which later on, at the bidding of Augustus, he transformed into the tale of Aristaeus. They say that Valerius Largus has been of such a great effrontery so that he led the historian Dio Cassius to relate that when Proculeius Gaius sometimes was meeting with him, was pressing hard his own nose and mouth with his hand, as if to indicate that for no one was a prudent thing neither to speak nor to breath in his presence, so impudent and loose tongued he was: hence Ovidius called him most shameless, and he was also usually called as Goose. Vergil want to hint at him when saying: A goose shrieking among swans. What has been soon adopted as proverb, when an ignorant gets himself to dispute among learned men. Propertius also writes of this goose as follows:

And this one is not inferior in inspiration, as far as he is inferior in voice,

the melodious swan submitted himself to the rough song of the goose.