Expert: Maria - 3/26/2010

Question
Hi Maria,

I would like to ask you please about the validity of something I have heard.  I heard that the root of 'pax' as in 'pax romana' actually came from a word which meant to conquer, thus throwing the meaning of 'pacify' and indeed of 'peace' itself into a totally ironic, exploitative sense.

however, online etymologies simply give me 'pax' as the roman goddess of peace.  was she really a goddess of peace?  or just peace after conquering?  have you hear the aforementioned rumor?

thanks a lot
Kalafya
p.s. I teach univ. test prep and english in bangkok, thailand

Answer
Hello,

Actually the Latin feminine noun PAX (3rd.declension, nominative case) - whose genitive is PACIS - derives from the root  PAC- we find in the verbs PACISCO/ PACISCOR  (I agree, I stipulate) and PANGO (I covenant, I agree upon) as well as in the noun PACTIO (3rd.declension , nominative case) just meaning “agreement”, “covenant”, “contract”.

Originally in fact PAX meant simply “agreement”, “contract”, “treaty”; hence “a treaty of peace” concluded  between parties at variance, esp. between belligerents, and then “peace”, “absence of war”, “reconciliation” after a quarrel, public or private.

This is the etymology of PAX we read in Sextus Pompeius Festus Lexicon (“De verborum significatu” meaning “On the Meaning of Words”), a Latin dictionary compiled in the Roman imperial period (maybe in the later 2nd century AD) by Festus who  made an abridgment in 20 books of an encyclopedic treatise of Verrius Flaccus, a celebrated grammarian who flourished in the reign of Augustus.

Here's what we read in Festus Lexicon:
“PACEM a PACTIONE conditionum putat dictam Sinnius Capito, quae utrique inter se populo sit observanda” meaning :“Sinnius Capito thinks that the word “peace” (PACEM in the accusative case of PAX ) derives from the word "agreement" (PACTIONE in the ablative case of PACTIO) that must be kept…).
Note that Sinnius Capito was an Augustan antiquarian quoted by Verrius Flaccus and Festus.


As for the  validity of something you have heard, i.e.  that the root of 'pax' as in 'pax romana' comes from a word which meant “to conquer”, I have to tell you that the Latin verbs meaning “to conquer” are : “vincere”,”superare”, “domare”, “potiri”, “capere” which have nothing to do with PAX, as you can see.  
Anyway, I would be curious to know where you have read such an etymology, though I think that those who have formulated this hypothesis starting from "Pax Romana" have been conditioned  by the idea that the "Pax Romana" as a dominion / empire implied a conquest, of course.
This is not however a serious method of searching etymological information.

Finally, it is true that in Roman mythology there was a goddess  named PAX who was just a goddess of peace  who had a temple near the forum, that of Claudius on the Coelian mount  (See Suetonius, Life of Vespasian, 9:” templum Pacis”).

Hope this is clear enough.
Best regards,
Maria
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P.S. We know very little of Festus who probably lived in the later second century AD.
As a primary source, he gives us the etymology as well as the meaning of many Latin words. Moreover he preserved by quotation the work of other authors that has not survived elsewhere.
The first half of Festus’work, too, is lost, but we have a further abridgment of it by Paul the Deacon (8th century).