Editing Victory title (section)

==Roman victory titles==
{{see also|List of Roman imperial victory titles}}
Victory titles were suffixed to the commander's name and were usually the name of the enemy defeated by the commander. Some victory titles became hereditary ''[[cognomen|cognomina]]'', while others were personal ''[[agnomen|agnomina]]'' and not carried on by later family members. Names like ''Africanus'' ("the African"), ''Numidicus'' ("the Numidian"), ''Isauricus'' ("the Isaurian"), ''Creticus'' ("the Cretan"), ''Gothicus'' ("the Goth"), ''Germanicus'' ("the German") and ''Parthicus'' ("the Parthian") expressed the triumphal subjugation of these peoples or their territories, or commemorated the locations of general's successful campaigns, equivalent to modern titles like [[Lawrence of Arabia]], and were not indicators of origin.

The practice of awarding victory titles was established in the [[Roman Republic]]. The most famous grantee of a Republican victory title was [[Scipio Africanus Major|Publius Cornelius Scipio]], who for his great victories in the [[Second Punic War]], specifically the [[Battle of Zama]] was awarded by the [[Roman Senate]] the title "Africanus" and is thus known to history as "Scipio Africanus" (his adopted grandson [[Scipio Aemilianus Africanus]] was awarded the same title after the [[Third Punic War]] and is known as "Scipio Africanus the Younger"). Other notable holders of such victory titles include [[Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus]], who was replaced by [[Gaius Marius]] as command-in-chief of the [[Jugurthine War]]; Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus, who commanded Roman anti-pirate operations in the eastern Mediterranean (and was father of [[Julius Caesar]]'s colleague in his second [[consul]]ate); [[Publius Servilius Isauricus|Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus]] in 48 BC), while [[Marcus Antonius Creticus]], another anti-piracy commander, (and father of Caesar's ''[[magister equitum]]'', [[Mark Antony]]) actually lost in Crete and was called ''Creticus'' mockingly, as it also meant "Man made of Chalk". Marcus Porcius Cato "Uticensis" received his title posthumously from those glorifying his suicide, rather than defeat, at Utica.

The practice continued in the [[Roman Empire]], although it was subsequently amended by some [[Roman Emperor]]s who desired to emphasise the totality of their victories by adding ''Maximus'' ("the Greatest") to the victory title (''e.g.'', ''Parthicus Maximus'', "the Greatest Parthian"). This taste grew to be rather vulgar by modern standards, with increasingly grandiose accumulations of partially fictitious victory titles.

In a broader sense, the term victory title is sometimes used to describe the ''repeatable'' awarding of the invariable style of [[Imperator]] (Greek equivalent [[Autokrator]]; see those articles), which is the highest military qualification (as modern states have awarded a non-operational highest rank, sometimes instituted for a particular general), but even when it marks the recipient out for one or more memorable victories (and the other use, as a permanent military command for the ruler, became in fact the more significant one), it does not actually specify one.