Roman naming conventions
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Over 1400 years the Romans and other peoples of Italy employed a system of names which were different from the personal names used by other cultures in Europe, consisting of a combination of a persona
Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, surnamed "Cunctator". Maximus was the branch of the Fabia gens to which he belonged; Verrucosus was a personal cognomen referring to a wart above his upper lip; Cunctator a cognomen ex virtute referring to his delaying strategy against Hannibal. Statue at Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna
"Dedicated by the emperor Caesar, son of the divine Marcus Antoninus Pius, brother of the divine Commodus, grandson of the divine Antoninus Pius, great-grandson of the divine Hadrian, great-great-grandson of the divine Trajan, conqueror of Parthia, great-great-great-grandson of the divine Nerva, Lucius Septimius Severus Pius Pertinax Augustus Arabicus Adiabenicus, father of his country, Pontifex Maximus, holding the tribunician power for the fourth year, in the eighth year of his imperium, consul for the second time; and
Avlia L.F. Secunda Aulia Secunda, daughter of Lucius
Roman tribe
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A tribus, or tribe, was a division of the Roman people for military, censorial, and voting purposes. When constituted in the comitia tributa, the tribes were the voting units of a legislative assembly
Roman naming conventions
…father, and sometimes the name of the mother or other antecedents. Toward the end of the Roman Republic, this was followed by the name of a citizen's voting tribe. Lastly, these elements could be followed by additional surnames, or cognomina, which could be either personal or hereditary, or a combination of both…
A Roman denarius of 63 BC: a voter casting a ballot
Inscription (CIL 13.1029) from Gallia Narbonensis, recording the enrollment of Gaius Otacilius in the tribus Voltinia (abbreviated VOL), into which Gallic citizens were frequently placed.
A view of the Roman Forum from the Palatine Hill.