“Nomenclator” (Name Caller)
We’ve all been there. You’re at a party or some other social event when someone comes up to you with a beaming smile and expectant eyes. You know you’ve met them before, but you can’t for the life of you place where. Worse still, you can’t remember their name. They remember yours though of course, singing it out as if you’ve been lifelong friends, before asking you how everything’s going and “what news” you have from the last however-many years. You do your best, fire off the best small talk you can muster, but you know—and they know—that you’re at a complete loss. And then the unspeakable happens: someone else joins the two of you and all falls silent as you’re expected to do the introductions. The game is up.
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the Romans, efficient as they were, had insurance against this. They would single out slaves or freedmen with particularly good memories for service as a nomenclator, whose name in Latin literally means “a caller of names”. And as the name suggests, the job of these walking friends-lists-cum-address-books was to save their master from mortifying social embarrassment by loudly announcing the name of whomever they happened to come across. They were put to good use at parties and banquets, waiting patiently by their master’s side to put lengthy Latin names to hooked Roman faced (was it Lucius Caecilius Balbus or Antonius Caecilius Bantius??). But away from feasts and festivities, they also served as important political instruments.
From the founding of the Republic, Roman politics involved annual elections. Like in democratic societies today, candidates for office would canvas for votes, showing their faces at the games or in the public forums while surrounded by a retinue of friends, clients, and dependents. This retinue would also include a nomenclator whose role was essential if the candidate was to avoid embarrassment; for only by calling out the name of whomever approached could he ensure his candidate could greet them in a personal and friendly manner.
