ABSTRACT
As every schoolboy used to know, the Romans had three names, the tria nomina, for example Gaius Julius Caesar, the Dictator; Marcus Tullius Cicero, the orator; or Quintus Horatius Flaccus, the poet. All these three lived in the first century BC when this classic system was firmly established and legally prescribed. Roman citizens were officially registered in this style, together with the all-important filiation indicating their fathers and even grandfathers or great-grandfathers, and the tribe or voting district to which they belonged. So Cicero’s full official name was Marcus Tullius Marci filius Cornelia Cicero, Marcus being also his father’s name and Cornelia his tribe. This would all usually have been abbreviated to M.Tullius M.f.Cor. Cicero.
