Pinaria (gens)

The gens Pinaria was one of the most ancient patrician families at Rome. According to tradition, the gens originated long before the founding of the city. The Pinarii are mentioned under the kings, and members of this gens attained the highest offices of the Roman state soon after the establishment of the Republic, beginning with Publius Pinarius Mamercinus Rufus, consul in 489 BC.

The origin of the Pinarii is related in two different traditions. The more famous of these held that a generation before the Trojan War, Hercules came to Italy, where he was received by the families of the Potitii and the Pinarii. He taught them a form of worship, and instructed them in the rites by which he was later honored; but due to the tardiness of the Pinarii to the sacrificial banquet, Hercules assigned them the subordinate position. For centuries, these families supplied the priests for the cult of Hercules, until nearly the entire Potitian gens perished in a plague at the end of the fourth century BC.

The extinction of the Potitii was frequently attributed to the actions of Appius Claudius Caecus, who in his censorship in 312 BC, directed the families to instruct public slaves in the performance of their sacred rites. Supposedly the Potitii were punished for their impiety in doing so, while the Pinarii refused to relinquish their office, which they held until the latest period.

In the later Republic, it was sometimes asserted that the Pinarii were descended from Pinus, a son of Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome. Several other families made similar claims; the Aemilii had long claimed to be descended from Mamercus, the son of Numa, while in later times the Pomponii and Calpurnii claimed to be descended from sons named Pompo and Calpus. Mamercus and Pompo were genuine praenomina of Sabine origin, like Numa himself, although Calpus and Pinus are not otherwise attested. The Marcii also claimed descent from Numa's grandson, Ancus Marcius, the fourth Roman king.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 940 ("Marcia Gens")

...
Wikipedia