Many times, the usage of the nomen was useless, so people used only the cognomen for short. This is how Gaius Julius Caesar is mostly known as Julius Caesar. The union of the nomen and cognomen formed the "family name" that was passed from father to sons, and was the public name of how people called each other. Most notably, Gaius Marius and Cnaeus Pompeius. In the Late Republic you can find how some of the most prominent characters were so-called New Men, from unimportant families, and notice how their names lack a cognomen. Thus, all patricians had a cognomen, while only the powerful plebeian families had one. The cognomina were a usual mark of distinction between rich and powerful families, and the rest, as usually only the former had ancestors worthy enough of having been granted a cognomen. You can imagine how these were first assigned. In this case, Crassus means Fat, Nero means Black and Pulcher means Clean. The cognomen usually were given to some ancestor to describe them (sometimes ironically), and it went on to their descendants. Thus, in the gens Claudia, there were the Claudius Crassus, the Claudius Nero, the Claudius Pulcher, and others. Caesar) this is a sort of appendix to the nomen, as a way of differentiating families of the same gens. If he had three, they would be Julia Prima, Julia Secunda, Julia Tertia, and so on.Ĭognomen (e.g. If he had two daughters, they would usually be known as Julia Major and Julia Minor, or Julilla. Thus, the daughter of Gaius Julius Caesar was known only as Julia. Talking about women, by the Late Republic the use of praenomina from them had fallen out of use, so they were usually known only by their nomen, and if there were more than one they were given some sort of "nicknames". Children would inherit the nomen from their father, but women would not get the one from their husband. Being a Publius Claudius didn't mean you were from the noble gens Claudia if your grandfather was a freed slave from a random Claudius. Later in history, when new people became Roman citizens, they would usually adopt the nomen of their patron, and the same happened with freed slaves, so the nomen lost its nobility importance. This was very important for patrician (noble) families, as they could trace the origin of their gens to the founding of Rome. It originally indicated the clan, or gens, that the man belonged to. Julius): Roughly equivalent to the modern family name like Wayne for John Wayne. This contributed to the disappearance of praenomina during the Late Empire. Thus, the men from the gens Julia (Caesar's clan) used only Gaius, Lucius and Sextus. Second, most clans ( gens) would usually use the same subset of two to four praenomina. First, there existed a total of less than forty of these names, and during the late republic only a dozen or so were really used. The differences with modern naming conventions were two. It's the name family members or close friends would call each other. Gaius): Roughly equivalent to a modern given name like, say, John in John Wayne. Thus, Caesar's full name at birth was Gaius Julius Caesar. Roman male names consisted of three possible parts: praenomen, nomen and cognomen. I'm going first to explain Roman naming conventions during the Late Republic (1st century BCE), which is the one that applies to Augustus. Previous AMAs | Previous Roundtables Featuresįeature posts are posted weekly. May 25th | Panel AMA with /r/AskBibleScholars Please Subscribe to our Google Calendar for Upcoming AMAs and Events To nominate someone else as a Quality Contributor, message the mods. Our flaired users have detailed knowledge of their historical specialty and a proven record of excellent contributions to /r/AskHistorians. Please Read and Understand the Rules Before Contributing. Report Comments That Break Reddiquette or the Subreddit Rules. Serious On-Topic Comments Only: No Jokes, Anecdotes, Clutter, or other Digressions. Provide Primary and Secondary Sources If Asked. Write Original, In-Depth and Comprehensive Answers, Using Good Historical Practices. Questions should be clear and specific in what they ask, and should be able to get detailed answers from historians whose expertise is likely to be in particular times and places. Nothing Less Than 20 Years Old, and Don't Soapbox. Be Nice: No Racism, Bigotry, or Offensive Behavior. Downvote and Report comments that are unhelpful or grossly off-topic.Upvote informative, well sourced answers.New to /r/AskHistorians? Please read our subreddit rules and FAQ before posting! Apply for Flair
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