THE NAME
REFERENCES: Marquardt, 7-27; Voigt, 311, 316 f., 454; Pauly-Wissowa,
under _cognōmen_; Smith, Harper, and Lübker, under _nōmen_.
See also: Egbert, "Latin Inscriptions," Chapter IV; Cagnat, "Cours
d'Epigraphie Latine," Chapter I; Hübner, "Römische Epigraphik," pp.
653-680 of Müller's _Handbuch_, Vol. I.
§38. The Triple Name.--Nothing is more familiar to the student of
Latin than the fact that the Romans whose works he reads first have
each a threefold name, Caius Julius Caesar, Marcus Tullius Cicero,
Publius Vergilius Maro. This was the system that prevailed in the best
days of the Republic, but it was itself a development, starting with a
more simple form in earlier times and ending in utter confusion under
the Empire. The earliest legends of Rome show us single names,
Romulus, Remus, Faustulus; but side by side with these we find also
double names, Numa Pompilius, Ancus Marcius, Tullus Hostilius. It is
possible that single names were the earliest fashion, but when we pass
from legends to real history the oldest names that we find are double,
the second being always in the genitive case, representing the father
or the Head of the House: Marcus Marci, Caecilia Metelli. A little
later these genitives were followed by the letter _f_ (for _fīlius_ or
_fīlia_) or _uxor_, to denote the relationship. Later still, but very
anciently nevertheless, we find the freeborn man in possession of the
three names with which we are familiar, the _nōmen_ to mark the clan
(_gēns_), the _cognōmen_ to mark the family, and the _praenōmen_ to
mark the individual. The regular order of the three names is
_praenōmen_, _nōmen_, _cognōmen_, although in poetry the order is
often changed to adapt the name to the meter.
§39. Great formality required even more than the three names. In
official documents and in the state records it was usual to insert
between a man's _nōmen_ and _cognōmen_ the _praenōmina_ of his father,
grandfather, and great-grandfather, and sometimes even the name of the
tribe to which he belonged. So Cicero might write his name: M. Tullius
M. f. M. n. M. pr. Cor. Cicero; that is, Marcus Tullius Cicero, son
(_fīlius_) of Marcus, grandson (_nepōs_) of Marcus, great-grandson
(_pronepōs_) of Marcus, of the tribe Cornelia. See another example in
§427.
[Illustration: FIGURE 5. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO]
§40. On the other hand even the triple name was too long for ordinary
use. Children, slaves, and intimate friends addressed the citizen,
master, and friend by his _praenōmen_ only. Ordinary acquaintances
used the _cognōmen_ with the _praenōmen_ prefixed for emphatic
address. In earnest appeals we find the _nōmen_ also used, with
sometimes the _praenōmen_ or the possessive _mī_ prefixed. When two
only of the three names are thus used in familiar intercourse the
order varies. If the _praenōmen_ is one of the two, it always stands
first, except in the poets for metrical reasons and in a few places in
prose where the text is uncertain. If the _praenōmen_ is omitted, the
arrangement varies: the older writers and Cicero put the _cognōmen_
first, _Ahāla Servilius_ (Cic. Milo, 3, 8: cf. _C. Servilius Ahāla_,
Cat. I., 1, 3). Caesar puts the nōmen first; Horace, Livy, and Tacitus
have both arrangements, while Pliny adheres to Caesar's usage. It will
be convenient to consider the three names separately, and to discuss
the names of men before considering those of the other members of the
_familia_.
§41. The Praenomen.--The number of names used as _praenōmina_ seems to
us preposterously small as compared with our Christian names, to which
they in some measure correspond. It was never much in excess of
thirty, and in Sulla's time had dwindled to eighteen. The full list is
given by the authorities named above, but the following are all that
are often found in our school and college authors: _Aulus_ (_A_),
_Decimus_ (_D_), _Gāius_ (_C_), _Gnaeus_ (_CN_), _Kaesō_ (_K_),
_Lūcius_ (_L_), _Mānius_ (_M'_), _Mārcus_ (_M_), _Pūblius_ (_P_),
_Quīntus_ (_Q_), _Servius_ (_SER_), _Sextus_ (_SEX_), _Spurius_
(_SP_), _Tiberius_ (_TI_), and _Titus_ (_T_). The forms of these names
were not absolutely fixed, and we find for _Gnaeus_ the forms
_Gnaivos_ (early), _Naevos_, _Naeus_, and _Gnēus_ (rare); so also for
_Servius_ we find _Sergius_, the two forms going back to an ancient
_Serguius_. The abbreviations also vary: for _Aulus_ we find regularly
_A_, but also _AV_ and _AVL_; for _Sextus_ we find _SEXT_ and _S_ as
well as _SEX_, and similar variations are found in the case of other
names.
§42. But small as this list seems to us the natural conservatism of
the Romans found in it a chance to display itself, and the great
families repeated the names of their children from generation to
generation in such a way as to make the identification of the
individual very difficult in modern times. Thus the Aemilii contented
themselves with seven of these _praenōmina_, _Gāius_, _Gnaeus_,
_Lūcius_, _Mānius_, _Mārcus_, _Quīntus_, and _Tiberius_, but used in
addition one that is not found in any other gens, _Māmercus_ (_MAM_).
The Claudii used six, _Gāius_, _Decimus_, _Lūcius_, _Pūblius_,
_Tiberius_, and _Quīntus_, with the additional name _Appius_ (_APP_),
of Sabine origin, which they brought to Rome. The Cornelii used seven,
_Aulus_, _Gnaeus_, _Lūcius_, _Mārcus_, _Pūblius_, _Servius_, and
_Tiberius_. A still smaller number sufficed for the Julian gens,
_Gāius_, _Lūcius_, and _Sextus_, with the name _Vopiscus_, which went
out of use in very early times. And even these selections were subject
to further limitations. Thus, of the _gēns Claudia_ only one branch
(_stirps_), known as the _Claudiī Nerōnēs_, used the names _Decimus_
and _Tiberius_, and out of the seven names used in the _gēns Cornēlia_
the branch of the Scipios (_Cornēliī Scīpiōnēs_) used only _Gnaeus_,
_Lūcius_, and _Pūblius_. Even after a _praenōmen_ had found a place in
a given family, it might be deliberately discarded: thus, the Claudii
gave up the name _Lūcius_ and the Manlii the name _Mārcus_ on account
of the disgrace brought upon their families by men who bore these
names; and the Antonii never used the name _Mārcus_ after the downfall
of the famous triumvir, Marcus Antonius.
[Illustration: FIGURE 6. CAESAR]
§43. From the list of names usual in his family the father gave one to
his son on the ninth day after his birth, the _diēs lūstricus_. It was
a custom then, one that seems natural enough in our own times, for the
father to give his own _praenōmen_ to his firstborn son; Cicero's name
(§39) shows the name _Mārcus_ four times repeated, and it is probable
that he came from a long line of eldest sons. When these names were
first given they must have been chosen with due regard to their
etymological meanings and have had some relation to the circumstances
attending the birth of the child: Livy in speaking of the mythical
Silvius Aeneas gives us to understand that he received his first name
because he was born in a forest (_silva_).
§44. So, _Lūcius_ meant originally "born by day," _Mānius_, "born in
the morning"; _Quīntus_, _Sextus_, _Decimus_, _Postumus_, etc.,
indicated the succession in the family; _Tullus_ was connected with
the verb _tollere_ in the sense of "acknowledge" (§95), _Servius_ with
_servāre_, _Gāius_ with _gaudēre_. Others are associated with the name
of some divinity, as _Mārcus_ and _Māmercus_ with Mars, and _Tiberius_
with the river god Tiberis. But these meanings in the course of time
were forgotten as completely as we have forgotten the meanings of our
Christian names, and even the numerals were employed with no reference
to their proper force: Cicero's only brother was called _Quīntus_.
[Illustration: FIGURE 7. AUGUSTUS]
§45. The abbreviation of the _praenōmen_ was not a matter of mere
caprice, as is the writing of initials with us, but was an established
custom, indicating perhaps Roman citizenship. The _praenōmen_ was
written out in full only when it was used by itself or when it
belonged to a person in one of the lower classes of society. When
Roman names are carried over into English, they should always be
written out in full and pronounced accordingly. In the same way, when
we read a Latin author and find a name abbreviated, the full name
should always be pronounced if we read aloud or translate.
§46. The Nomen.--This, the all-important name, is called for greater
precision the _nōmen gentīle_ and the _nōmen gentīlicium_. The child
inherited it, as one inherits his surname now, and there was,
therefore, no choice or selection about it. The _nōmen_ ended
originally in _-ius_, and this ending was sacredly preserved by the
patrician families: the endings _-eius_, _-aius_, _-aeus_, and _-eus_
are merely variations from it. Other endings point to a non-Latin
origin of the gens. Those in _-ācus_ (_Avidiācus_) are Gallic, those
in _-na_ (_Caecīna_) are Etruscan, those in _-ēnus_ or _-iēnus_
(_Salvidiēnus_) are Umbrian or Picene. Some others are formed from the
name of the town from which the family sprang, either with the regular
terminations _-ānus_ and _-ēnsis_ (_Albānus_, _Norbānus_,
_Aquiliēnsis_), or with the suffix _-ius_ (_Perusius_, _Parmēnsius_)
in imitation of the older and more aristocratic use. Standing entirely
apart is the _nōmen_ of the notorious _Gāius Verrēs_, which looks like
a _cognōmen_ out of place (§55).
§47. The _nōmen_ belonged by custom to all connected with the gens, to
the plebeian as well as the patrician branches, to men, women,
clients, and freedmen without distinction. It was perhaps the natural
desire to separate themselves from the more humble bearers of their
_nōmen_ that led patrician families to use a limited number of
_praenōmina_, avoiding those used by their clansmen of inferior social
standing. At any rate it is noticeable that the plebeian families, as
soon as political nobility and the busts in their halls gave them a
standing above their fellows, showed the same exclusiveness in the
selection of names for their children that the patricians had
displayed before them (§42).
[Illustration: FIGURE 8. NERO]
§48. The Cognomen.--Besides the individual name and the name that
marked his _gēns_, the Roman had often a third name, called the
_cognōmen_, that served to indicate the family or branch of the _gēns_
to which he belonged. Almost all the great _gentēs_ were thus divided,
some of them into numerous branches. The Cornelian gens, for example,
included the plebeian Dolabellae, Lentuli, Cethegi, and Cinnae, in
addition to the patrician Scipiones, Maluginenses, Rufini, etc. The
recognition of a group of clansmen as such a branch, or _stirps_, and
as entitled to transmit a common _cognōmen_ required the formal
consent of the whole _gēns_, and carried with it the loss of certain
privileges as _gentīlēs_ to the members of the _stirps_.
§49. From the fact that in the official name (§39) the _cognōmen_
followed the name of the tribe, it is generally believed that the
oldest of these _cognōmina_ did not go back beyond the time of the
division of the people into tribes. It is also generally believed that
the _cognōmen_ was originally a nickname, bestowed on account of some
personal peculiarity or characteristic, sometimes as a compliment,
sometimes in derision. So, we find many pointing at physical traits,
such as _Albus_, _Barbātus_, _Cincinnātus_, _Claudus_, _Longus_ (all
originally adjectives), and the nouns _Nāsō_ and _Capitō_ ("the man
with a nose," "with a head"); others refer to the temperament, such as
_Benignus_, _Blandus_, _Catō_, _Serēnus_, _Sevērus_; others still
denote origin, such as _Gallus_, _Ligus_, _Sabīnus_, _Siculus_,
_Tuscus_. These names, it must be remembered, descended from father to
son, and would naturally lose their appropriateness as they passed
along, until in the course of time their meanings were entirely lost
sight of, as were those of the _praenōmina_ (§44).
§50. Under the Republic the patricians had almost without exception
this third or family name; we are told of but one man, Caius Marcius,
who lacked the distinction. With the plebeians the _cognōmen_ was not
so common, perhaps its possession was the exception. The great
families of the Marii, Mummii, and Sertorii had none, although the
plebeian branches of the Cornelian gens (§48), the Tullian gens, and
others, did. The _cognōmen_ came, therefore, to be prized as an
indication of ancient lineage, and individuals whose nobility was new
were anxious to acquire it to transmit to their children. Hence many
assumed _cognōmina_ of their own selection. Some of these were
conceded by public opinion as their due, as in the case of Cnaeus
Pompeius, who took _Magnus_ as his _cognōmen_. Others were derided by
their contemporaries, as we deride the made-to-order coat of arms of
some nineteenth century upstart. It is probable, however, that only
nobles ventured to assume _cognōmina_ under the Republic, though under
the Empire their possession was hardly more than the badge of freedom.
§51. Additional Names.--Besides the three names already described, we
find not infrequently, even in Republican times, a fourth or fifth.
These were also called _cognōmina_ by a loose extension of the word,
until in the fourth century of our era the name _agnōmina_ was given
them by the grammarians. They may be conveniently considered under
four heads:
In the first place, the process that divided the gens into branches
might be continued even further. That is, as the _gēns_ became
numerous enough to throw off a _stirps_, so the _stirps_ in process of
time might throw off a branch of itself, for which there is no better
name than the vague _familia_. This actually happened very frequently:
the _gēns Cornēlia_, for example, threw off the _stirps_ of the
_Scīpiōnēs_, and these in turn the family or "house" of the _Nāsīcae_.
So we find the quadruple name _Pūblius Cornēlius Scīpiō Nāsīca_, in
which the last name was probably given very much in the same way as
the third had been given before the division took place.
§52. In the second place, when a man passed from one family to another
by adoption (§30) he regularly took the three names of his adoptive
father and added his own _nōmen gentīle_ with the suffix _-ānus_.
Thus, Lucius Aemilius Paulus, the son of Lucius Aemilius Paulus
Macedonicus (see §53 for the last name), was adopted by Publius
Cornelius Scipio, and took as his new name _Pūblius Cornēlius Scīpiō
Aemiliānus_. In the same way, when Caius Octavius Caepias was adopted
by Caius Julius Caesar, he became _Gāius Iūlius Caesar Octāviānus_,
and is hence variously styled Octavius and Octavianus in the
histories.
§53. In the third place, an additional name, sometimes called
_cognōmen ex virtūte_, was often given by acclamation to a great
statesman or victorious general, and was put after his _cognōmen_. A
well known example is the name of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus,
the last name having been given him after his defeat of Hannibal. In
the same way, his grandson by adoption, the Publius Cornelius Scipio
Aemilianus mentioned above, received the same honorable name after he
had destroyed Carthage, and was called _Pūblius Cornēlius Scīpiō
Africānus Aemiliānus_. Such a name is Macedonicus given to Lucius
Aemilius Paulus for his defeat of Persens, and the title Augustus
given by the senate to Octavianus. It is not certainly known whether
or not these names passed by inheritance to the descendants of those
who originally earned them, but it is probable that the eldest son
only was strictly entitled to take his father's title of honor.
§54. In the fourth place, the fact that a man had inherited a nickname
from his ancestors in the form of a _cognōmen_ (§49) did not prevent
his receiving another from some personal characteristic, especially as
the inherited name had often no application, as we have seen, to its
later possessor. To some ancient Publius Cornelius was given the
nickname _Scīpiō_ (§49), and in the course of time this was taken by
all his descendants without thought of its appropriateness and became
a _cognōmen_; then to one of these descendants was given another
nickname for personal reasons, _Nāsīca_, and in course of time it lost
its individuality and became the name of a whole family (§51); then in
precisely the same way a member of this family became prominent enough
to need a separate name and was called _Corculum_, his full name being
_Pūblius Cornēlius Scīpiō Nāsīca Corculum_. It is evident that there
is no reason why the expansion should not have continued indefinitely.
Such names are Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, Quintus Caecilius
Metellus Celer, and Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio. It is
also evident that we can not always distinguish between a mere
nickname, one belonging strictly to this paragraph, and the additional
_cognōmen_ that marked the family off from the rest of the _stirps_ to
which it belonged. It is perfectly possible that the name Spinther
mentioned above has as good a right as Nasica to a place in the first
division (§51).
§55. Confusion of Names.--A system so elaborate as that we have
described was almost sure to be misunderstood or misapplied, and in
the later days of the Republic and under the Empire we find all law
and order disregarded. The giving of the _praenōmen_ to the child
seems to have been delayed too long sometimes, and burial inscriptions
are numerous which have in place of a first name the word _pūpus_
(_PVP_) "child," showing that the little one had died unnamed. One
such inscription gives the age of the unnamed child as sixteen years.
Then confusion was caused by the misuse of the _praenōmen_. Sometimes
two are found in one name, e.g., _Pūblius Aelius Aliēnus Archelāus
Mārcus_. Sometimes words ending like the _nōmen_ in _-ius_ were used
as _praenōmina_: Cicero tells us that one _Numerius Quīntius Rūfus_
owed his escape from death in a riot to his ambiguous first name. The
familiar Gāius must have been a _nōmen_ in very ancient times. Like
irregularities occur in the use of the _nōmen_. Two in a name were not
uncommon, one being derived from the family of the mother perhaps;
occasionally three or four are used, and fourteen are found in the
name of one of the consuls of the year 169 A.D. Then by a change, the
converse of that mentioned above, a word might go out of use as a
_praenōmen_ and become a _nōmen_: Cicero's enemy _Lūcius Sergius
Catilīna_ had for his gentile name _Sergius_, which had once been a
first name (§41). The _cognōmen_ was similarly abused. It ceased to
denote the family and came to distinguish members of the same family,
as the _praenōmina_ originally had done: thus the three sons of Marcus
Annaeus Seneca, for example, were called _Mārcus Annaeus Novātus_,
_Lūcius Annaeus Seneca_, and _Lūcius Annaeus Mela_. So, too, a word
used as a _cognōmen_ in one name might be used as a fourth element in
another: for example in the names _Lūcius Cornēlius Sulla_ and _Lūcius
Cornēlius Lentulus Sura_ the third and fourth elements respectively
are really the same, being merely shortened forms of _Surula_. Finally
it may be remarked that the same name might be arranged differently at
different times: in the consular lists we find the same man called
_Lūcius Lūcrētius Tricipitīnus Flāvus_ and _Lūcius Lūcrētius Flāvus
Tricipitīnus_.
§56. There is even greater variation in the names of persons who had
passed from one family into another by adoption. Some took the
additional name (§52) from the _stirps_ instead of from the _gēns_,
that is, from the _cognōmen_ instead of from the _nōmen_. A son of
Marcus Claudius Marcellus was adopted by a certain Publius Cornelius
Lentulus and ought to have been called _Pūblius Cornēlius Lentulus
Claudiānus_; he took instead the name _Pūblius Cornēlius Lentulus
Marcellīnus_, and this name descended to his children. The confusion
in this direction is well illustrated by the name of the famous Marcus
Junius Brutus. A few years before Caesar fell by his hand, Brutus, as
we usually call him, was adopted by his mother's brother, Quintus
Servilius Caepio, and ought to have been called _Quīntus Servīlius
Caepiō Iūniānus_. For some reason unknown to us he retained his own
_cognōmen_, and even his close friend Cicero seems scarcely to know
what to call him. Sometimes he writes of him as _Quīntus Caepiō
Brūtus_, sometimes as _Mārcus Brūtus_, sometimes simply as _Brūtus_.
The great scholar of the first century, Asconius, calls him _Mārcus
Caepiō_. Finally it may be noticed that late in the Empire we find a
man struggling under the load of forty names.
§57. Names of Women.--No very satisfactory account of the names of
women can be given, because it is impossible to discover any system in
the choice and arrangement of those that have come down to us. It may
be said in general that the threefold name was unknown in the best
days of the Republic, and that _praenōmina_ were rare and when used
were not abbreviated. We find such _praenōmina_ as _Paulla_ and
_Vibia_ (the masculine forms of which early disappeared), _Gāia_,
_Lūcia_, and _Pūblia_, and it is probable that the daughter took these
from her father. More common were the adjectives _Maxuma_ and _Minor_,
and the numerals _Secunda_ and _Tertia_, but these unlike the
corresponding names of men seem always to have denoted the place of
the bearer among a group of sisters. It was more usual for the
unmarried woman to be called by her father's _nōmen_ in its feminine
form, _Tullia_, _Cornēlia_, with the addition of her father's
_cognōmen_ in the genitive case, _Caecilia Metellī_, followed later by
the letter _f_ (=_filia_) to mark the relationship. Sometimes she used
her mother's _nōmen_ after her father's. The married woman, if she
passed into her husband's hand (_manus_, §35) by the ancient patrician
ceremony, originally took his _nōmen_, just as an adopted son took the
name of the family into which he passed, but it can not be shown that
the rule was universally or even usually observed. Under the later
forms of marriage she retained her maiden name. In the time of the
Empire we find the threefold name for women in general use, with the
same riotous confusion in selection and arrangement as prevailed in
the case of the names of men at the same time.
§58. Names of Slaves.--Slaves had no more right to names of their own
than they had to other property, but took such as their masters were
pleased to give them, and even these did not descend to their
children. In the simpler life of early times the slave was called
_puer_, just as the word "boy" was once used in this country for
slaves of any age. Until late in the Republic the slave was known only
by this name corrupted to _por_ and affixed to the genitive of his
master's first name: _Mārcipor_ (=_Mārcī puer_), "Marcus's slave."
When slaves became numerous this simple form no longer sufficed to
distinguish them, and they received individual names. These were
usually foreign names, often denoting the nationality of the slave,
sometimes, in mockery perhaps, the high-sounding appellations of
eastern potentates, such names as Afer, Eleutheros, Pharnaces. By this
time, too, the word _servus_ had supplanted _puer_. We find,
therefore, that toward the end of the Republic the full name of a
slave consisted of his individual name followed by the _nōmen_ and
_praenōmen_ (the order is important) of his master and the word
_servus_: _Pharnacēs Egnātiī Pūbliī servus_. When a slave passed from
one master to another he took the _nōmen_ of the new master and added
to it the _cognōmen_ of the old with the suffix _-ānus_: when Anna the
slave of Maecenas became the property of Livia, she was called _Anna
Līviae serva Maecēnātiāna_.
[Illustration: FIGURE 9. TRAJAN]
§59. Names of Freedmen.--The freedman regularly kept the individual
name which he had had as a slave, and was given the _nōmen_ of his
master with any _praenōmen_ the latter assigned him. Thus, Andronicus,
the slave of Marcus Livius Salinator, became when freed _Lūcius Līvius
Andronīcus_, the individual name coming last as a sort of _cognōmen_.
It happened naturally that the master's _praenōmen_ was often given,
especially to a favorite slave. The freedman of a woman took the name
of her father, e.g., _Mārcus Līvius Augustae l Ismarus_; the letter
_l_ stands for _lībertus_, and was inserted in all formal documents.
Of course the master might disregard the regular form and give the
freedman any name he pleased. Thus, when Cicero manumitted his slaves
Tiro and Dionysius he called the former in strict accord with custom
_Mārcus Tullius Tīrō_, but to the latter he gave his own _praenōmen_
and the _nōmen_ of his friend Titus Pomponius Atticus, the new name
being _Mārcus Pomponius Dionysius_. The individual names (Pharnaces,
Dionysius, etc.) were dropped by the descendants of freedmen, who were
anxious with good reason to hide all traces of their mean descent.
§60. Naturalized Citizens.--When a foreigner was given the right of
citizenship, he took a new name, which was arranged on much the same
principles as have been explained in the cases of freedmen. His
original name was retained as a sort of _cognōmen_, and before it were
written the _praenōmen_ that suited his fancy and the _nōmen_ of the
person, always a Roman citizen, to whom he owed his citizenship. The
most familiar example is that of the Greek poet Archias, whom Cicero
defended under the name of _Aulus Licinius Archiās_ in the well-known
oration. He had long been attached to the family of the Luculli and
when he was made a citizen took as his _nōmen_ that of his
distinguished patron Lucius Licinius Lucullus; we do not know why he
selected the first name Aulus. Another example is that of the Gaul
mentioned by Caesar (B. G., I, 47), _Gāius Valerius Cabūrus_. He took
his name from Caius Valerius Flaccus, the governor of Gaul at the time
that he was given his citizenship. It is to this custom of taking the
names of governors and generals that is due the frequent occurrence of
the name Julius in Gaul, Pompeius in Spain, and Cornelius in Sicily.