Galba (Suessiones)

Etymology of name

Galba as a Roman cognomen is associated with a branch of the gens Sulpicia. Although the most famous bearer is the Emperor Galba in the 1st century AD, a Servius Sulpicius Galba also served under Caesar in Gaul. Suetonius says that in Gaulish Galba means "fat" (compare Old Irish golb, "paunchy, fat"), and Galba is usually regarded as Celtic in origin. Since physical fitness was a requirement of Gallic fighting men, who might be fined if they reported for duty overweight, the Celtic name is likely either to have lost the connotations of its original meaning, or in regard to a king to refer to "fat times" or prosperity.

References

References

1. [[Julius Caesar]], ''[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico]]'' 2.4; John Creighton, ''Coins and Power in Late Iron Age Britain'' (Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 12 [https://books.google.com/books?id=Y7W6uBoCcdAC&dq=Galba+intitle%3ACoins+inauthor%3ACreighton&pg=PA12 online.]
2. ''Justitiam prudentiamque'' (''Bellum Gallicum'' 2.4.7): "a just and able man," in the translation of S.A. Handford, ''Caesar: The Conquest of Gaul'' (Penguin Books, 1951, revised ed. 1982), p. 59. ''Prudentia'' combines the capacities of "foresight" and "practical wisdom" (''[[Oxford Latin Dictionary. OLD]]''). In the usage of [[Cicero]], contemporary with that of Caesar, ''prudentia'' is the [[Latin]] equivalent of [[ancient Greek language. Greek]] ''[[phronesis]].''
3. ''Bellum Gallicum'' 3.1–6 and 7.90.
4. [[Suetonius]], ''Galba'' 3, Bill Thayer's edition at [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Galba*.html#3 LacusCurtius.]; [[Quintilian]] says the ''cognomen'' originated as a type of nickname, like ''Rufus'' ("Red-headed"), ''Longus'' ("Tall"), ''Pansa'' ("Splay-footed"), etc.
5. Xavier Delamarre, entry on ''galba'', ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise'' (Éditions Errance, 2003), p. 174. See also D. Ellis Evans, ''Gaulish personal names: a study of some Continental Celtic formations'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967), pp. 293, 297, 349.