Etrusco-romano
Regular Member
The 'Adoptio' was used within the Republican period, it lasted a few hundred years at most and don't forget that the names given to unrelated persons were almost without exception praenomen not the cognomen or nomen gentile. The nomen gentile or name of the gens was never given as part of the 'Adoptio' as this would contravene the tradition of the patriciate. I actually don't know of one case even when an emperor adopted another emperor where the cognomen or nomen gentile was ever given. Remember I am referring to the aristocracy where they did not approve of intermarriage with the ignoble classes. It is a fairy tale that important families would give their servants or non-relatives their cognomen and gentilicium. These were passports and guarded very closely.
If it was as you say then Italy and Greece would have many surnames that can be traced to an important family. This is simply untrue.
Poor families often asked a noble to baptize their children, this practice was widespread in Italy and Greece. Soldiers often had the honor of having their children baptized by a commanding officer or important dignitary following success on the battlefield. No surnames were ever given or anything to that effect.
I'm talking about a surnames in Italy, maximum in Gaul and Iberia, but not in Greece, where the Romans rather than to incorporate the Hellenic world stabilize it with them. And you say right, the adoptive was used in Republican age, when it was unified Italy.
I carry (not exatly, i must to find the text) a speech which Marcus Aurelius in response to complaints (even a fight between senators) expressed by the senatorial class for the Emperor's decision to appoint some members of the ruling class Roman-Gallic senators: "We were not perhaps at the same point centuries ago, even before the Empire (principato), even before Caesar, when, in this same hall, your honorable and ancient ancestors revolted against generals and tribunes for the senatorial appointment of your "fathers" Etruscans and Sabines (the term Sabine we also wanted to understand the Italics)? "
Survived many Roman families of ancient lineage, of course, but most of the Senate, in imperial times, was composed of Italic-Etruscan nobility, my same last name, Cecchi, comes from a family-Roman Etruscan civilization, the Caecina.