Editing Roman naming conventions (section)

==Foreign names==
As Roman territory expanded beyond Italy, many foreigners obtained Roman citizenship, and adopted Roman names. Often these were discharged auxiliary soldiers, or the leaders of annexed towns and peoples. Customarily a newly enfranchised citizen would adopt the praenomen and nomen of his patron; that is, the person who had adopted or manumitted him, or otherwise procured his citizenship. But many such individuals retained a portion of their original names, usually in the form of cognomina.  This was especially true for citizens of [[Ancient Greece|Greek origin]].  A name such as {{Smallcaps|T. Flavius Aristodemus}} or {{Smallcaps|[[Gaius Julius Hyginus]]}} would be typical of such persons, although in form these names are not distinguishable from those of freedmen.{{efn-lr|In such cases, the filiation, if present, would indicate if someone were a freedman; but in these particular instances the nomina suggest citizens of provincial origin, who have been enfranchised by imperial decree.}}<ref name="OCD:Names"/>

The ''[[Constitutio Antoniniana]]'' promulgated by [[Caracalla]] in AD 212 was perhaps the most far-reaching of many imperial decrees enfranchising large numbers of non-citizens living throughout the empire. It extended citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire, all of whom thus received the name ''Marcus Aurelius'', after the emperor's praenomen and nomen. The result was that vast numbers of individuals who had never possessed praenomina or nomina formally shared the same names. In turn, many of the "new Romans" promptly discarded their praenomina, and ignored their nomina except when required by formality. As a result, the cognomina adopted by these citizens, often including their original non-Latin names, became the most important part of their nomenclature.<ref name="Salway"/>