Re: Translation question

> Patrick Dunn tleiceiç:
> > Being something of a Rome buff, I actually know this.  A cognomen was
> > essentially a personal nickname used to distinguish a person from the
many
> > other people in his or her gens named the exact same thing (Romans were
> > notoriously uncreative at naming, even resorting to numbers quite
> > frequently).
>
> So, could you explain the three names.  Which one referred to the gens?
> How was the cognomen given?
Praenomen Nomen gentis Cognomen

Thus

Marcus Tullius Cicero was one of the Tullians, his first name was Marcus
(they had some 6-8 names for each gender, and after taht went on numbering
them -- thus Quintus Horatius Flaccus...), and his Cognomen was Cicero
(possibly his _branch_ of the Tullians).

Gaius Iulius Caesar was of the Iulians (who traced back to Aeneas himself,
and thus to Venus), of the _branch_ called Caesar due to the voluminous
hair.

// Mikael Johansson