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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, Soter1 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.
1 Soter, Saviour; Callinicus, Of noble victory; Physcon, Fat-paunch; Grypus, hook-nosed; Euergetes, Benefactor; Philadelphus, Sisteror Brother-lover; Eudaemon, Prosperous; Doson, Always-promising; Lathyrus, Vetchling; Sulla, Blotches (?); Niger, Black; Rufus, Red; Caecus, Blind; Claudius, Lame.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives. with an English Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1916. 4.
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