The basic unit of Roman society was the familia (‘family’), which included several generations of relatives, often living under the same roof, slaves, property and animals. The legal head of the familia was the oldest living male (paterfamilias), who had supreme power within the household. When he died, his sons in turn became heads of their own households, thus forming a new social body, the house or clan (gens).
All Roman males had a personal (praenomen) and a family name (nomen), and patricians and plebeians also had a middle name (cognomen), indicating their genes, e.g. Gaius (personal) Julius (gens) Caesar (familia). When several members of the same family had all three names in common, they were differentiated by additional epithets, e.g. 06Cornelius Scipio Barbatus (the ‘Bearded’), 297 BC, Battle at Tifernum (Umbria).
The personal name is usually in abbreviated: Agrippa (Agr), Appius (Ap), Aulus (A), Caeso (K), Decimus (D), Gaius (C) Gnaeus (Cn), Faustus (F), Lucius (L), Mamercus (Mam), Manius (M’), Marcus (M), Numerius (N), Octavius (Oct), Opiter (Opet), Postumus (Post), Proculus (Pro), Publius (P), Quintus (Q), Sertor (Sert), Servius (Ser), Sextus (Sex), Spurius (Sp), Statius (St), Tiberius (Ti), Titus (T), Vibius (V), Volesus (Vol) and Vopiscus (Vop).
A person who did not have an influential family could become a client (‘dependent’) of a wealthy patron (‘protector’ or ‘defender’), who would provide legal and financial aid in return for public honour and loyalty. The system of patronage in Rome can be described as a great pyramid. At the top were the wealthiest citizens who did not need a patron. Below them were their clients (sometimes a hundred or more) who could themselves be patrons to other clients further down the social scale, and so on, until the base of the pyramid encompassed nearly all the citizens in Rome. Roman generals often assumed a general patronage over the peoples they conquered.
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