There’s only 1 Caesar, or Slim Shady, or Charlemagne or Attila.
In my experience, in context people often do drop the “the Great” and just say Alexander.
Caesar, or Charlemagne or Attila.
Well, those are fairly uniquely-identifiable names in the scheme of things. “Caesar” isn’t just the guy at your local pizzeria, but THE Caesar of Caesars. “Charlemagne” is a combination of the common name “Charles” and <“great”> as with Alexander. “Attila” is a rarer name, already with a certain stigma, so quite unique in that sense.
“Alex” / “Alexander” is still a pretty common name today, so it makes some sense that there’d be a qualifier. Not unlike with Peter the Great , Catherine the Great, etc…
Also I would say Atilla is usually called Atilla the Hun in most textbooks I saw in the U.S. Also since Caesar became a position/title we still say Julius to specifically refer to him.
As for Slim Shady, I seem to remember many people standing up to that name
Also I would say Atilla is usually called Atilla the Hun
Good point, and I think I whiffed a bit on that one. “Atilla” is actually a name still used sometimes today across Europe, so “the Hun” definitely adds some helpful context.
Also since Caesar became a position/title we still say Julius to specifically refer to him.
You mean, in Italy?
In the States, I feel like it’s pretty clear that “Caesar” without further context refers to either a leader / dictator / emperor of the Julio-Claudian line, or more commonly to Julius himself. The point being that if you’re referring to one of the emperors, it’s usually necessary to name them, i.e. “Caesar Tiberius,” etc.
Yeah now to show our Archilles, I have no idea what else I would call Saladin, but Saladin. Im sure a textbook full names him somewhere… but I haven’t ever remembered it.
Caesar (Cesar or Cesare) is still a pretty common name today though.
That’s what I’m saying, above.
Hm. Guess I didn’t interpret you the right way then, sorry. Bed time for me then, enough Internet
Charlemagne is in the same boat, it means Charles the Great
The name Charlemagne annoys me because in most other languages it’s Charles (or Karl) the Great, but in English and apparently French it’s shortened to Charlemagne though he was originally Charles Le Magne in French?
I did not know that, and now I feel foolish
There’s only 1 Caesar
Julius or Augustus? Or Edward Swallow, Ave, trve to Caesar!
Caesar is actually a title, and where the German word Kaiser and the Russian word Czar came from.
Slim Shady is a rap name, it’s probably copyrighted tbh.
Charlamagne the God or Charlemagne the King/Emporer?
Pretty sure his friends call him Alexander of Macedonia.
“The Great” is a moniker given to certain rulers. England has only one. List of people known as the Great - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_known_as_the_Great
Is anyone else mad that Alexander the first the Great came after Alexander the third the Great?
There’s only 1 Caesar
Not necessarily. I originally thought the phrase “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” from the Bible referred to Julius Caesar, but apparently it refers to Tiberius.
Though in modern times “Caesar” almost ubiquitously is referencing Julius
His family name is Julius Caesar. Gaius is his given name.
It’s/was basically the chief. Kaiser comes from that word IIRC. It’s a bit like “king”. Julius just made it stick to him, a bit like a brand name!
Tsar/Czar is also derived from Caesar.
Almost correct. The title Caesar derives from Gaius Julius Caesars (the “OG”) lastname Caesar. It was used by successors to imply a lineage between them and Caesar and therefore give them more legitimacy in the eyes of the people.
Not many people know this, but Pontius Pilate, inventor of Pilates, also had another lesser known historical role
I’m pretty sure it almost always references the salad.
His family name became a title for future Emperors.
And the title of Caesar more rightfully translated would be “God King”. It implied divinity and super human levels of being.
God being a roman god, not the christian god. So not omnipotent, omnipresent, or omniscient. But still divine.
While it actually means “born through C-section”
Honestly might be an even harder flex than just being the only Caesar
No, it’s because he conquered the known world, and he left a lasting influence/political structure behind him as he went.
He’s asking why is it Alexander the Great but not Caesar the Great. If Alexander was so great, he wouldn’t need “the great” after his name. Alexander itself would be enough.
He’s trolling, yeah. I understood that.
He’s called that because that’s what he’s called.
Why is your username Blue Morpho? because that’s what you username is.
Not 100% trolling, just thinking it was kinda weird that Caesar is not ‘Caesar the Great’, even though his name was reused by Augustus and others.
“Alexander” was an incredibly common name in the Greek world. Even within his own family tree, he was technically Alexander III of Macedon. Using “The Great” was a practical necessity for historians to distinguish him from his father’s predecessors and the dozens of other Alexanders running around the Mediterranean. Plus his scale of impact was absurd! Charlemagne literally means “Charles the Great” because there were many Charleses. Finally, while we usually think of Julius Caesar, “Caesar” became a title used by every Roman Emperor for centuries. It eventually evolved into “Kaiser” and “Tsar”. If you just say “Caesar” in a room full of Roman history buffs they actually will ask you to disambiguate which one you mean
Does this technically mean the the little orange freakshow is also a ‘Donald the Great’? He’s technically the most succesful ‘Donald’, as the only one why made it to leader of a country and the only one with diapers and a nussy.
Names only stick if history validates you. Plenty of other rulers ended up getting remembered through the lens of discontent, bad press by who came later, and sometimes mistranslation. Ivan IV Grozny was a ruthless dude, but “Grozny” meant awe-provoking or imposing, whereas in English “Terrible” tends to imply evil. Æthelred II Unræd meant “good counsel”, but as that word fell out of use in English he got stuck with “Unready” because it just happens to be similar in form but not meaning.
Donnie probably wishes he’ll be remembered as something special, but informally Diaper Don will outlive him and I don’t foresee history being gentle with its performance review.
You didn’t want to get him mixed up with Alexander the Just Kind of OK at Things, do you?
I count see getting a beer with Alex the Just Kind of OK at Things.
Plus I could probably beat him at Catan
Fun fact: there was actually zero Charlesmagnes.
The guy was called Charles le Magne (French for Charles the Great) and some barely literate idiot who had somehow* got the translator job in spite of clearly not being anywhere near fluent in French made up a stupid new word born of ignorance that the English speaking world has been using ever since.
*I’m guessing he was the failson of the groom of the stool or something like that.
I don’t know when that happened for the English language, but Charlemagne (as a single word) is also what the French language calls him, the earliest variations of it appearing in the Song of Roland (11th c.)
So you’re telling me that, presumably due to medieval French people having an irrational fear of spaces between words or an allergy to proper kerning, his name WAS actually the equivalent of Charlesthegreat like some German compound noun weirdness?
Huh. TIL!
“Boss, I can save you a couple of deniers’ worth of ink and paper over the course of the tome by writing Charlemagne instead of Charles Le Magne every time we refer to the great king.”
“Brilliant! You get an extra serving of gruel for lunch!”
Save ink by removing spaces! Brilliant.
Charles Le Magne
Charle
sLeMagneCharlemagne
Save three letters per instance of the name being used. If it’s a history of French royalty, that adds up!
an irrational fear of spaces between words or an allergy to proper kerning
Yeah uh, medieval language was not nearly as entrenched in rules and grammar, and absolutely not set in stone. Things changed from one text to another - even within the same text. The same Song of Roland writes that same name in a few different ways, some with spaces, some without, with different letters.
From the French Wikipedia, count’em :
Carles (vers 1) ou Charles (28, vers 370), Carles li magnes (68, vers 841) ou Charles li magnes (93, vers 1195), traductions de Carolus magnus, mais aussi Carlemagnes (33, vers 430) ou Charlemaignes (138, vers 1842)
“Charlemagne” literally means “Charles the Great”.
All the other Alexanders are just imitating
!look, there were already great answers, so there was room for a joke one!<
there’s several caesars, slim shady nobody else has that name, Charlemagne is French for Charles the Great, and Attila was antiwestern so they wouldn’t name him “great”
