Papirius

The gens Papiria was an ancient patrician family at Rome. According to tradition, the Papirii had already achieved prominence in the time of the kings, and the first Rex Sacrorum was a member of this gens. Lucius Papirius Mugillanus was the first of the Papirii to obtain the consulship in 444 BC. The patrician members of the family regularly occupied the highest offices of the Roman state down to the time of the Punic Wars. Most of the Papirii who held office under the later Republic belonged to various plebeian branches of the family. Although the most illustrious Papirii flourished in the time of the Republic, a number of the family continued to hold high office during the first two centuries of the Empire.

Cicero described the history of the Papirii to his friend, Papirius Paetus, a plebeian member of the family, who was unaware of the patrician origin of the family. According to Cicero, the Papirii were one of the gentes minores, the lesser of two divisions made amongst the patrician gentes at Rome. The gentes maiores were the greatest or most noble patrician houses, while the rest of the patrician families made up the gentes minores. The precise distinction between the two divisions is not known, nor have any lists of the families belonging to each survived from antiquity. However, it has been suggested that the gentes maiores consisted, at least in part, of the families who came to Rome in the time of Romulus, while the gentes minores consisted of the patrician families that were enrolled after the destruction of Alba Longa, or under the Tarquins.

The original form of the nomen Papirius was Papisius, and all of the early Papirii would have been known by this name, although in later times they were always referred to as Papirii. A number of other ancient nomina experienced the same evolution; Fusius becoming Furius, Valesius becoming Valerius, and Vetusius becoming Veturius. Cicero writes that the first of the Papirii to adopt the "modern" spelling was Lucius Papirius Crassus, consul in BC 336.

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