What is "mamercus"

Mamercus is an ancient Roman name; see Mamercus (praenomen). In late antiquity it is found also as Mamertus. People named Mamercus or Mamertus include:

• Mamercus, legendary ancestor of the Roman gens with the nomen Aemilius; see Aemilia (gens)
• Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus (fl. 5th century BC)
• Mamercus of Catane, tyrant of the Sicilian city Catane 345-338 BC
• Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus (d. c. 62 BC)
• Mamercus Aemilius Scaurus (fl. early 1st century)
• Claudianus Mamertus (d. c. 473), Gallo-Roman theologian and brother of Saint Mamertus
• Saint Mamertus (d. c. 475)

Mamercus is a Latin praenomen, or personal name, which was used in pre-Roman times and throughout the Roman Republic, becoming disused in imperial times. The feminine form is Mamerca. The patronymic gens Mamercia was derived from this name, as were the cognomina Mamercus and Mamercinus. The name was usually abbreviated Mam.

The praenomen Mamercus is best known from gens Aemilia, one of the greatest of the patrician houses at Rome, which claimed descent from Mamercus, said to have been a son of Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome. Several prominent members of this family bore the name during the Roman Republic. The Pinarii, another patrician family, is also said to have used the praenomen Mamercus, although no examples from this gens have been preserved. According to one tradition, the Pinarii were descended from another son of Numa Pompilius, although in his history of Rome, Titus Livius records that the gens was still more ancient, and predated the founding of the city.

Both the Aemilii and the Pinarii used Mamercus and Mamercinus as cognomina. Other families which used these names as cognomina may have used the praenomen Mamercus at one time.