impostor

First attested in Varro (ling.) as a linguistic technical term, the noun impos(i)tor developed in Late Antiquity into the specialised meaning of ‘impostor’. In this sense, the term appears in two passages by Ulpian (dig. 21,1,4,2; 50,13,1,3); Jerome employs it in the proverbial expression impostor et Graecus est (epist. 38,5) and in a broader discussion concerning the uirgines subintroductae (epist. 117,8), while Paulinus of Nola (carm. 24,337-8) uses it in reference to monks of dubious honesty. The term is also attested in Firmicus Maternus (math. 4,7,3), in the Querolus (40,3; 50,5) and in Salvian of Marseilles (gub. 1,2,7, where it features in a discussion of theodicy).