O Tite! A Peculiar Use of the Praenomen

Abstract

As we see from Ennius, the praenomen alone can be used by a Greek addressing a Roman; as we see from Lucilius, it can be also employed by a Roman greeting a philhellene in jest. At the beginning of Cato Maior, Cicero quotes the passage of Ennius, but those words when addressed by him to Atticus acquire a similar function as those mentioned by Lucilius.