Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/148

 142 THE FAMILY. BOOK n. Those wl)o think they see in the gens an artificial association, set out from a false assumption. They suppose that a gens always consisted of several families having different names, and they cite the Cornelian gens, which did indeed include Scipios, Lentuli, Cossi, and Syllffi. But this is very far from having been a general rule. The Marcian gens appears never to have had more than a single line. We also find but one in the Lucretian gens, and but one in the Qiiintil- lan gens, for a long time. It would certainly be very diflScult to tell what families composed the Fabian gens, for all the Fabii known in history belong manifestly to the same stock. At first they all bear the same sur- name of Vibulanus ; they all change it afterwards for that of Ambustus, which they replace still later by Maximus or Dorso. We know that it was customary at Rome for all patricians to have three names. One was called, for example, Piiblius Cornelius Scipio. It may be worth the while to inquire which of these three names was considered as the true name. Publius was merely a name 2Jiaced before — prcenomen / Scipio was a name added — agnom.en. The true name was Cornelius ; and this name was at the same time that of the whole gens. Had we only this single indication regarding the an- cient gens, it would justify us in affirming that there were Cornelii before there Avere Scipios, and not, as it is often said, that the family of the Scipios associated with others to form the Cornelian gens. History teaches us, in fact, that the Cornelian gens was for a long time undivided, and that all the mem- bers alike bore the surname of Maluginensis, and that of Cossus. It was not till the time of the dictator Camillus that one of its branches adopted the surname of Scipio.