[ops33]

Recently I’ve been reading Colleen McCullough’s series of novels on ancient Rome. From them I have learned that what we would consider a Roman’s last name, his cognomen, usually described some physical or family aspect of the man. For instance, Caeser’s full name was Gaius Julius Ceasar. Gaius was his first name, Julius was his family name. The cognomen Caeser means “a fine head of hair.”
Other cognomens would refer to whether the individual had red hair (Rufius), was crossed eyed (Strabo), etc.

[marinamuffy]

Recently I’ve been reading Colleen McCullough’s series of novels on ancient Rome.

I've read her Rome series also and enjoyed them very much. Books like that make me want to dig into non-fiction after I've finished to see how much was, or could have been, accurate.

[Antoninus]

Recently I’ve been reading Colleen McCullough’s series of novels on ancient Rome.

I read a couple of them and didn't like them. Too much speculation on the strange sexual practices of the primary characters for my taste. Caesar frolicing with a Gaulic witch in Caesar? Sulla's doings with his mother-in-law made me put down First Man in Rome.