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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1962735, member: 19463&quot;]The Romans had such a love of nicknames that we now consider that name part of the official name.&nbsp; The last of three names, the cognomen, frequently had a meaning that was given to the man as a child in some cases or later in others.&nbsp; Gaius Mucius became Scaevola (Lefty) when he burned off his right hand in a confrontation with an opposing king.&nbsp; Decimus Clodius was named Albinus (White) because of his pale complexion while Gaius Pescennius was called Niger (Black) for a reason reported by the Scriptores Historia Augusta as having a black neck.&nbsp; No one take SHA seriously so we really do not know why he had the name.&nbsp; Some men were named after someone including the cognomen so not all were nicknames.&nbsp; The names became more likely to be hereditary as time went on.&nbsp; In many cases we have no idea where a name came from but it is best we do not translate all of them.&nbsp; The orator Marcus Tullius&nbsp; sounds so much better as &#039;Cicero&#039; than he would as &#039;Chickpea&#039;.&nbsp; Sometimes a man would have a perfectly good cognomen and then tack on a fourth name.&nbsp; Publius Cornelius Scipio added the &#039;agnomen&#039; Africanus when he had military successes there.&nbsp; Unofficial names of emperors like Caracalla and Caligula are as much a part of modern history as they are ancient.&nbsp; Whether or not the names were actually used (certainly not in public) is not certain.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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