Inspired by boundless curiosity and a desire not to continue reviewing all ten bazillion vocabulary words that will be on the midterm, I bring you additional research on the name Germanicus and its origins in history and in my life.

from the dictionary:
Germanicus -a -um (adj) 1. Germanic 2. cognomen of Tiberius's nephew and adoptive son (15 BC - AD 19)

Apparently my predecessor lived fast and died young (or old?) at the age of 34. Drawing on my extensive knowledge of Roman history, I can tell you that a "cognomen" is a lot like a nickname. Caligula, for example, is the diminuitive form of the word "caliga" (army boot) and it means "little army boot". The future emperor was nicknamed "little boots" because he liked (supposedly) to play dress-up and wear a little soldier's uniform around the town. Germanicus, and I'm really only guessing here, probably had something to do with the Germani (that's Latin for "the Germans").

information from the internet:

it seems that Germanicus was also the brother of one emperor, Claudius I, and (apropos of my earlier cognomen illustration) the father of another, Caligula.

also from the internet:
(also, please be sure to take note of the excellent picture of a coin with "agreement of the armies" written around the sides of it. and who said that Latin wouldn't be useful?)

According to my second stop the all-knowing Internet, Germanicus, was a popular general whose family relations were somewhat confusing. He died of a mysterious illness and was (I gather) called Germanicus because he spent his time killing Germans.

also also from the internet:

well, it turns out that the Internet was right. Germanicus had an incredibly confused family tree. He was (if I got this right) related by blood to Caesar Augustus's wife (her grandson) and was also Marc Antony's grandson via his daughter. However, Germanicus was the child of a child of Augustus's wife by a previous marriage (not Augusts) but due to his popularity with the emperor was adopted by him (Augustus) as his grandson. Also, it seems that after Augustus's death, and due to his popularity, the army rioted and demanded that Tiberius be put aside and that he take the throne in Tiberius's place. He refused, however, and lived out the rest of his life as a general before dying of a mysterious illness (possibly poison) in Egypt.

and in conclusion, this piece was too long for even me to read. but it did have some interesting bits:

Germanicus's birth name is totally unknown, although it "was probably that of his father or Tiberius Claudius Nero". also, Germanicus apparently fathered nine children in fourteen years on his wife, Aggripina, six of whom actually survived their father.

What, if anything, all of this has to do with me is sort of unclear. According to the TA (aka GSI) whose unlucky task it was to give me a name, all of the names she gave out have "worked out very well" and that there is/was "something wholesome" about me. Both of these comments I understood to mean that she felt that my spirit was accurately captured by the cognomen, Germanicus. What exactly being wholesome (?) has to do with killing Germans and being allegedly poisoned I am sort of unclear on.

Abruptly changing my course (perhaps this blog is tacking into the wind?) have you noticed that I have totally lost any semblance of narrative/flow between and even within posts? Seriously, what was I thinking putting all of that obscure and random garbage about Roman emperors dead nearly 2000 years up here? Is it presumptuous of me to engage in this kind of navel gazing at your expense after already having subjected you to a bunch of stuff that is only connected to me in the very loosest sense of the word "connected"? Probably, I don't know, and almost certainly. Unless something really exciting comes through in the clutch but soon, I'm going to have to start putting my grocery lists up here in lieu of telling you about something interesting that's going on in my life. Either that, or I'm just going to start making some shit up.