Daughters generally received the name of their father, or some relation, varied only by ending according to the feminine instead of the masculine gender: thus Hortensia was the daughter of Hortensius; and the two daughters of Mark Antony were named Antonia Major, and Antonia Minor. By way of endearment they frequently made use of those diminutives, to which the language of Italy owes so much of its gracefulness; thus the beloved daughter of Tullius Cicero was called Tulliola. In a numerous family, girls were often distinguished from each other by the diminutives of numbers; as Secundilla, and Quartilla, the Second and the Fourth. At marriage, a woman retained her original name with the addition of her husband’s; thus Cornelia, the wife of Sempronius Gracchus, was called Cornelia Sempronia. The birth of children was celebrated by a domestic festival, during which the gates were adorned with branches, garlands, and lamps, and a piece of money was deposited in the temple of Juno Lucina, whose office corresponded to the Eleutho of the Grecians. Boys received the family name on the ninth day after birth, and girls on the eighth; but they did not give the _prænomen_, or, as we should say, the _baptismal name_, until they took the virile robe, which marked their entrance into manhood; and girls did not receive it till they were married. Romulus introduced the Spartan custom of exposing all sickly and deformed children; with this restriction, that every child should be nourished three years, in order to try whether it would not, in that interval, attain health and vigor. In later times, this prohibition was disregarded, and the custom of exposing infants became very common. While the Romans retained their primitive simplicity, mothers nursed their own babes, and would have considered it a great misfortune or reproach, to have employed another to fulfil that tender office; but as luxury increased, indolence and love of pleasure so far conquered maternal affection, that women of rank almost universally consigned their children to the care of female slaves.