§50. Under the Republic the patricians had almost without exception this third or family name; we are told of but one man, Caius Marcius, who lacked the distinction. With the plebeians the _cognōmen_ was not so common, perhaps its possession was the exception. The great families of the Marii, Mummii, and Sertorii had none, although the plebeian branches of the Cornelian gens (§48), the Tullian gens, and others, did. The _cognōmen_ came, therefore, to be prized as an indication of ancient lineage, and individuals whose nobility was new were anxious to acquire it to transmit to their children. Hence many assumed _cognōmina_ of their own selection. Some of these were conceded by public opinion as their due, as in the case of Cnaeus Pompeius, who took _Magnus_ as his _cognōmen_. Others were derided by their contemporaries, as we deride the made-to-order coat of arms of some nineteenth century upstart. It is probable, however, that only nobles ventured to assume _cognōmina_ under the Republic, though under the Empire their possession was hardly more than the badge of freedom. §51. Additional Names.--Besides the three names already described, we find not infrequently, even in Republican times, a fourth or fifth. These were also called _cognōmina_ by a loose extension of the word, until in the fourth century of our era the name _agnōmina_ was given them by the grammarians. They may be conveniently considered under four heads: In the first place, the process that divided the gens into branches might be continued even further. That is, as the _gēns_ became numerous enough to throw off a _stirps_, so the _stirps_ in process of time might throw off a branch of itself, for which there is no better name than the vague _familia_. This actually happened very frequently: the _gēns Cornēlia_, for example, threw off the _stirps_ of the _Scīpiōnēs_, and these in turn the family or "house" of the _Nāsīcae_. So we find the quadruple name _Pūblius Cornēlius Scīpiō Nāsīca_, in which the last name was probably given very much in the same way as the third had been given before the division took place. §52. In the second place, when a man passed from one family to another by adoption (§30) he regularly took the three names of his adoptive father and added his own _nōmen gentīle_ with the suffix _-ānus_. Thus, Lucius Aemilius Paulus, the son of Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus (see §53 for the last name), was adopted by Publius Cornelius Scipio, and took as his new name _Pūblius Cornēlius Scīpiō Aemiliānus_. In the same way, when Caius Octavius Caepias was adopted by Caius Julius Caesar, he became _Gāius Iūlius Caesar Octāviānus_, and is hence variously styled Octavius and Octavianus in the histories.