M. Caelius T. f. Lemonia Bononia
This is the official name of a centurion of legio XVIII preserved on an inscription now in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn, Germany (CIL XIII 8648; AE 1952). His name embodies the elements of Roman naming practice. It translates as ‘Marcus Caelius, son of Titus, of the voting tribe of Lemonia, from Bononia’. Marcus is his forename (praenomen) by which his family and close friends called him. In inscriptions, public records and narrative texts, it was abbreviated. The standard abbreviations for common praenomina were:
| A. | Aulus | |
| Ap. | Appius | |
| C. or G. | Caius or Gaius | |
| Cn. or Gn. | Cnaeus or Gnaeus | |
| D. | Decimus | |
| L. | Lucius | |
| M. | Marcus | |
| Mam. | Mamius | |
| M’. | Manius | |
| P | Publius | |
| Q | Quintus | |
| Ser | Servius | |
| Sex | Sextus | |
| Sp. | Spurius | |
| T. | Titus | |
| Ti. | Tiberius |
Caelius is his clan or family name (nomen genticulum). Many of these clans such as the Claudia and Cornelia were famous old families of Rome with proud traditions. Then follows the filiation or patronymic of the father’s praenomen, whose full name would have been Titus Caelius. As a Roman citizen his family was associated with one of 35 voting tribes: in elections Caelius voted with the Lemonian tribe. The final element is the place of his birth (origo) or domicile (domus), which is in this case Bononia, modern Bologna in Italy. Together these distinguished this particular Marcus Caelius from another bearing the same name. To clearly tell men apart with the same name, with their warped sense of humour, Romans often adopted a third nickname (cognomen) such as Rufus ‘red haired’, Paulus ‘shorty’ or Brutus ‘stupid’. A man who had achieved a great victory in battle might be granted use of an honorific title (agnomen) such as Africanus ‘the African’ or Britannicus ‘the Briton’ indicating the theatre of war in which it was won.