§53. In the third place, an additional name, sometimes called _cognōmen ex virtūte_, was often given by acclamation to a great statesman or victorious general, and was put after his _cognōmen_. A well known example is the name of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, the last name having been given him after his defeat of Hannibal. In the same way, his grandson by adoption, the Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus mentioned above, received the same honorable name after he had destroyed Carthage, and was called _Pūblius Cornēlius Scīpiō Africānus Aemiliānus_. Such a name is Macedonicus given to Lucius Aemilius Paulus for his defeat of Persens, and the title Augustus given by the senate to Octavianus. It is not certainly known whether or not these names passed by inheritance to the descendants of those who originally earned them, but it is probable that the eldest son only was strictly entitled to take his father's title of honor. §54. In the fourth place, the fact that a man had inherited a nickname from his ancestors in the form of a _cognōmen_ (§49) did not prevent his receiving another from some personal characteristic, especially as the inherited name had often no application, as we have seen, to its later possessor. To some ancient Publius Cornelius was given the nickname _Scīpiō_ (§49), and in the course of time this was taken by all his descendants without thought of its appropriateness and became a _cognōmen_; then to one of these descendants was given another nickname for personal reasons, _Nāsīca_, and in course of time it lost its individuality and became the name of a whole family (§51); then in precisely the same way a member of this family became prominent enough to need a separate name and was called _Corculum_, his full name being _Pūblius Cornēlius Scīpiō Nāsīca Corculum_. It is evident that there is no reason why the expansion should not have continued indefinitely. Such names are Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, and Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio. It is also evident that we can not always distinguish between a mere nickname, one belonging strictly to this paragraph, and the additional _cognōmen_ that marked the family off from the rest of the _stirps_ to which it belonged. It is perfectly possible that the name Spinther mentioned above has as good a right as Nasica to a place in the first division (§51).