Re: Metius Fufetius

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Francesco Brighenti" <frabrig@...>
wrote:

>
> Yes, I've seen that a variant form of the name Metius (~
> Mettius/Mettus) Fufetius (~ Fuffetius) is Metius *Suffetius*
> (attested in some Roman writers of the imperial period, f.i. in
> Lucius Ampelius).
>
> Yet, it seems very unlikely to me that the original form was
> Suffetius and that the latter name was related to Lat. suf(f)es, -
> etis 'the chief magistrate of the Carthaginians, a sufet'.

> Why should late Roman writers have equated the title of the office
> held by a general/dictator/king of archaic Alba Longa to that of a
> Phoenician sufet?

********
An answer to the last question occurred to me, but it seemed too
unlikely to mention.
But since in his later post, Francesco quoted Noonan in a scholarly
journal postulating equally obscure puns, here it is for Cybalist:
"Suffetius" implied that Fufetius, an archetype of personal
perfidy, adumbrated Punica fides, the archetype of national perfidy to
the Romans.
Dan