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).