Caius Marcius Coriolanus

But I do ask one special favour, he said, and beg that I may receive it. I had a guest-friend among the Volscians, a man of kindliness and probity. This man is now a prisoner, and from wealth and happiness is reduced to subjection. Since, then, many evils have befallen him, let me at least free him from one, that of being sold into bondage. At such words as these still louder shouts greeted Marcius, and he found more admirers of his superiority to gain than of the bravery he had shown in war.

For the very ones who secretly felt a certain jealous envy of him for his conspicuous honours, now thought him worthy of great rewards because he would not take them; and they were more delighted with the virtue which led him to despise such great rewards, than with the exploits which made him worthy of them. For the right use of wealth is a fairer trait than excellence in arms; but not to need wealth is loftier than to use it.

When the multitude had ceased shouting their applause, Cominius took up the word again and said: Ye cannot, indeed, my fellow-soldiers, force these gifts of yours upon the man, when he does not accept them and is unwilling to take them; but there is a gift which he cannot refuse when it is offered. Let us give him this gift, and pass a vote that he be surnamed Coriolanus, unless, indeed, before such act of ours, his exploit has itself given him this name. Thence came his third name of Coriolanus.[*](Cf. Dionysius Hal. vi. 94. )

From this it is perfectly clear that Caius was the proper name; that the second name, in this case Marcius, was the common name of family or clan; and that the third name was adopted subsequently, and bestowed because of some exploit, or fortune, or bodily feature, or special excellence in a man. So the Greeks used to give surnames from an exploit, as for instance, Soter[*](Soter, Saviour; Callinicus, Of noble victory; Physcon, Fat-paunch; Grypus, hook-nosed; Euergetes, Benefactor; Philadelphus, Siste ror Brother-lover; Eudaemon, Prosperous; Doson, Always-promising; Lathyrus, Vetchling; Sulla, Blotches (?); Niger, Black; Rufus, Red; Caecus, Blind; Claudius, Lame.) and Callinicus; or from a bodily feature, as Physcon and Grypus; or from a special excellence, as Euergetes and Philadephus; or from some good fortune, as Eudaemon, the surname of the second Battus.