UBI TU GAIUS EGO GAIA

According to tradition, UBI TU GAIUS EGO GAIA was the formula that was spoken by the bride during a Roman wedding ceremony . The use of the formula was limited to the manuscript .

The formula has only been handed down in Greek by Plutarch in his Roman investigations , and is:

ὄπου σὺ γάιος ἐγὼ γαῖα .

It appears to be authentic as Cicero and Quintilian refer to it.

Translated the formula is roughly: "Where you are (a) Gaius , I (a) Gaia ". Plutarch already speculated about the exact meaning: he thinks that Gaius and Gaia could be placeholders in the form of particularly common names, as one speaks of "Mr. Maier" and "Mr. Müller" in constructed legal cases, or it could be named to a particularly honored woman Remember Gaia, for example Gaia Caecilia , the wife of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus , the legendary fifth king of Rome.

For Cicero the meaning also seems unclear, he expresses himself somewhat contemptuously about people who think they have read in some old book that all women were previously called Gaia.

Gary Forsythe tried to derive the formula from a reconstructed archaic adjective gaia (from Latin gaudeo , to be happy). Then the meaning would be: "Where you find happiness, I will also find happiness."

As an appendix to Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri novem by Valerius Maximus , a short, anonymous work Liber de praenominibus ("About first names") has been handed down, in which the author actually supports all interpretations. Because he says

that the root of the name Gaius is gaudium , the parents' joy in the birth of their child,
that the name Gaia has become the most common female name and therefore representative of women, and
he names the Gaia Caecilia, who, as a good spinner, was exemplary for all women .

Therefore, when the bride entering the bridegroom's house is asked who she is, she replies, "I am [a] Gaia".

Attempts to derive the formula from the Greek, i.e. to interpret γάιος ( Gaios ) and γαῖα ( Gaia ) as Greek words, fail because Gaia is well known as earth and “mother earth”, but does not really prove a corresponding meaning of Gaios is. Rather, γαιος is the usual Greek transcription of the Roman name Gaius .

literature

Alexander Adam: Roman Antiquities: or, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Romans. 6th edition. Blackie & Son, Glasgow 1835, p. 404 .
Gary Forsythe: "Ubi tu gaius, ego gaia". New Light on an Old Roman Legal Saw. In: Historia. Ancient History Journal . Vol. 45, No. 2, 1996, pp. 240-241, JSTOR 4436421 .
Ingemar König : Vita romana. From daily life in ancient Rome. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-534-17950-1 , p. 36.
Herbert J. Rose : The Roman Questions of Plutarch. A new Translation with Introductory Essays & a running Commentary. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1924, p. 183.

Individual evidence

↑ Plutarch quaestiones Romanae 30
↑ Marcus Tullius Cicero per Murena 12:27
↑ Quintilian institutio oratoria 01/07/28
↑ de praenominibus 4
↑ de praenominibus 5:
Ceterum Gaia usu super omnes celebrata est. Ferunt enim Gaiam Gaeciliam, Tarquinii Prisci regis uxorem, optimam lanificam fuisse et ideo institutum ut novae nuptae ante ianuam mariti interrogatae quaenam vocarentur Gaias esse se dicerent.
^ E.g. in Griffith Hartwell Jones: The Dawn of European Civilization. Paul, Trench, Trübner, London 1903, p. 149 .

[1] Plutarch quaestiones Romanae 30

[2] Marcus Tullius Cicero per Murena 12:27

[3] Quintilian institutio oratoria 01/07/28

[4] de praenominibus 4

[5] de praenominibus 5:
Ceterum Gaia usu super omnes celebrata est. Ferunt enim Gaiam Gaeciliam, Tarquinii Prisci regis uxorem, optimam lanificam fuisse et ideo institutum ut novae nuptae ante ianuam mariti interrogatae quaenam vocarentur Gaias esse se dicerent.

[6] E.g. in Griffith Hartwell Jones: The Dawn of European Civilization. Paul, Trench, Trübner, London 1903, p. 149 .