Chapter LXXXIV: Section III: Antonius

Two gentes were called Antonius, a word that is not easy to trace. Some explain it as inestimable, but the Triumvir himself chose to deduce it from Antius, a son of Hercules. One of these clans was patrician, with the cognomen Merenda; the other plebeian, without any third name, and it was to the latter that the avenger of Cæsar and lover of Cleopatra belonged—Mark Anthony, Marc Antoine, or Marcantonio, as modern tongues have clipped his Marcus Antonius. The clipping had, however, been already performed before the resuscitation of his evil fame in the fifteenth century, for both his names had become separately saintly, and therefore mutilated; Mark in the person of the Evangelist, Antonius in that of the great hermit of the fourth century—the first to practise the asceticism which resulted in the monastic system. Of Egyptian birth, his devotions, his privations, and his conflicts with Satan, were equally admired in the Eastern and Western Churches, and Antonios has been as common among the Greeks as Antonius among the Latin Christians.

St. Antony was already very popular when St. Antonio of Padua further increased the Italian devotion to the name, and Antonio has ever since been exceedingly common in Italy and Spain. Classical pedantry made Antonio Paleario turn it into Aonio in honour of the Aonian choir; but whatever he chose to call himself he made glorious by his life and death.

The Dutch seem to have needlessly added the silent _h_, and we probably learnt it from them. The popularity of Antony has much diminished since the Reformation in England, where perhaps it is less used than in any other country.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Provençal. │ Italian. │
│Antony │Antoine │Antoni │Antonio │
│Anthony │ │ │Tonio │
│Tony │ │ │Tonetto │
│Antholin │ │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Frisian. │ Dutch. │ Swiss. │
│Antonius │Tönnes │Anthonius │Antoni │
│Tenton │Tonjes │Theunis │Toni │
│Tony │ │Toontje │ │
│ │ │Tool │ │
│ │ │Antoonije │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Russian. │ Polish. │ Slovak. │ Servian. │
│Antonij │Antoni │Anton │Antun │
│Anton │Antek │Tone │Antonija │
│ │Antos │Tonek │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Lusatian. │ Lett. │ Esthonian. │ Hungarian. │
│Anto │Antons │Tönnis │Antal │
│Hanto │Tennis │Tonnio │ │
│Tonisch │Tanne │ │ │
│Tonk │ │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

The feminine form, Antonia, is very common in Italy and Spain. The Germans have it as Antonie, and this was the original name of Maria Antonia, whom we have learnt to regard with pitying reverence as Marie Antoinette, whence Toinette is a common French contraction.

┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ French. │ Italian. │ Swedish. │ Swiss. │Lithuanian. │
│Antoinette │Antonia │Antonia │Tonneli │Ande │
│Toinette │Antonietta │Antonetta │ │ │
│Toinon │Antonica │ │ │ │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘

The Aurelian gens was an old Sabine one, and probably derived its name from _aurum_ (gold), the _oro_ of Italy and _or_ of France, though others tried to take it from _Helios_ (the sun).

The old name, Aurelia, for a chrysalis was, like it, taken from the glistening golden spots on the cases of some of the butterfly pupæ. The Aurelian gens was old and noble, and an Aurelia was the mother of Julius Cæsar.