J
i was curious as to the meaning of the word vatican since it is always called THE vatican. wow did that ever take me all over the place. you finally find it listed under the vulgar latin name vagitanus. vatcanus is classical latin. this is the name of one of many pagan roman deities of infants. this particular deity is said to be responsible for opening the newborns mouth to wail which is what vatican means. to wail/cry. this god is also supposed to be the originator of human speech. i learned a lot of other interesting things. the pontificate was formed from the septemviri epulonum an ancient roman religion that translates roughly the seven men of the masters of the feast. it originally had 3 men and finally had 10 but the name remained unchanged. their emblem was the goddess vesta or concordia. the vatican is also the god who presides over the hill. a voice is said to have been heard from heaven at the lowest point of a nearby road which began the vaticinia i e prophecies. more info can be found online or from a book 'Divine Things' by marcus varro. thought this was very interesting