The gens Papiria was a patrician family at ancient Rome. According to tradition, the Papirii had already achieved prominence in the time of the kings, and the first Rex Sacrorum and Pontifex Maximus of the Republic were members 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. Their most famous member was Lucius Papirius Cursor, five times consul between 326 and 313 BC, who earned three triumphs during the Samnite 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.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 118 ("Papiria Gens").
Origin 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.Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, ix. 21. 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.
Praenomina The chief praenomina of the Papirii during the Republic were Lucius, Marcus, Gaius, Manius, and Spurius. The first three were the most common of all Roman names, while Manius and Spurius were much more distinctive. The only other praenomina found among the patrician Papirii are Tiberius, and perhaps Sextus or Publius, known from individual instances, but only Publius is known from the other members of the gens. The plebeian Papirii Carbones used primarily Gaius and Gnaeus; this last was a common name not found among the ancient patrician stirpes, but which was still used by the Papirii of imperial times.
Branches and cognomina From at least the time of the early Republic, the Papirii are divided into a number of branches, or stirpes, distinguished by their surnames. Cicero lists the patrician cognomina of the Papirii as Crassus, Cursor, Maso, and Mugillanus, while the plebeian families included those of Carbo, Paetus, and Turdus.
The Papirii Mugillani were the first of these families to obtain the consulship. Their surname was derived from an ancient city of Latium known as Mugilla, the ancestral home of the Papirii.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 1119 ("Mugillanus"). According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Mugilla was conquered by Coriolanus after he was banished from Rome and went over to the Volsci.Dionysius, viii. 36. It must have been in the vicinity of the Volscian towns of Pollusca and Corioli, but it was evidently deserted at a very early date, as Pliny does not mention it among his list of former cities in Latium.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, vol. II, p. 376 ("Mugilla").
The Papirii Crassi appear almost simultaneously with the Mugillani, and remained a distinct family down to the Second Samnite War. Their surname, Crassus, which means "thick" or "fat", was common to a number of prominent gentes, including the Claudii and the Licinii.Chase, p. 110.
Cursor, the surname of the third branch of the Papirii to achieve prominence, means "a runner", and was probably bestowed upon the dictator Lucius Papirius Cursor because of his speed. The Papirii Cursores appear in history from the early fourth century BC to the beginning of the third.Chase, p. 111.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, pp. 904, 905 ("Cursor"). The Cursores likely descended from the Mugillani, as Lucius Papirius Cursor, the dictator, is sometimes found with this cognomen. Friedrich Münzer writes that he was the first named Cursor, and his grandfather—the first with this name in the sources—actually bore the cognomen Mugillanus.Münzer, RE, vol. 36, tome 2, pp. 1040, 1041.Oakley, Commentary on Livy, vol. I, pp. 437, 438; vol. II, p. 664; vol. IV, p. 578. Oakley initially stated that the problem of Cursor's cognomen was "insoluble", but in his subsequent volumes he accepts Münzer's theory that his initial cognomen was likely Mugillanus.
The surname Maso, sometimes spelled Masso, is derived from the Latin massa, a "mass" or "lump".Chase, p. 113.New College Latin & English Dictionary, s. v. masso. The Papirii Masones were the last of the distinct patrician families of this gens, although some of the other Papirii were also patricians, including Lucius Papirius Praetextatus, censor in 272 BC. The Masones occur from the end of the fourth century BC down to the time of Cicero.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 970 ("Maso").Broughton, vol. I, p. 198.
Among the plebeian branches of the Papiria gens, the most important was that surnamed Carbo, referring to a piece of coal or charcoal; metaphorically, something black, or of little value.Chase, p. 113.New College Latin & English Dictionary, s. v. carbo, coal. The Papirii Carbones appear in the first half of the second century BC, and continued down to the time of Cicero.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, pp. 610–612 ("Carbo").
Paetus, the surname of Cicero's plebeian friend, referred to a mild defect of vision, variously described as "blink-eyed", or "squinty". This common cognomen implied a lesser deficit than Strabo, "squinty", Luscus, "one-eyed", or Caecus, "blind", and could even be regarded as endearing; it was an epithet of Venus.Chase, p. 109.New College Latin & English Dictionary, s. v. paetus, caecus, luscus, strabo.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 83 ("Paetus")
Cicero describes the Papirii Turdi as a plebeian family, although only one of them is mentioned in history: Gaius Papirius Turdus, tribune of the plebs in 177 BC. Their surname signified a thrush.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 1191 ("Gaius Papirius Turdus")
Members
Sextus Papirius, collected the leges regiae, the laws of the Roman kings, which came to be known as the Ius Papirianum, during the reign of Tarquinius Superbus.Digesta seu Pandectae, 2. tit. 2. s. 2. § 2. 36.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 118 ("Gaius or Sextus Papirius"). Gaius Papirius, Pontifex Maximus in 509 BC, collected the religious ordinances of Numa Pompilius, which Ancus Marcius had carved on oaken tablets, and placed in the Roman Forum.Dionysius, ii. 63, iii. 36.Livy, i. 20, 32.RE, "Papirius", No. 23.Broughton, vol. I, p. 4. Manius Papirius, appointed the first Rex Sacrorum in 509 BC, in order to carry out the religious duties that had previously been performed by the king.Dionysius, v. 1. Lucius Papirius, a creditor, who accepted a boy, Gaius Publilius, as nexus, or collateral for his father's debt, in 326 BC. When his lustful advances toward the boy were rejected, Papirius caused the boy to be stripped and lashed; popular outrage led to the abolition of nexum by a law ironically named the lex Poetelia Papiria, after the consuls Gaius Poetelius Libo and Lucius Papirius Cursor.Livy, viii. 28. Lucius Papirius L. f. M. n. Praetextatus, censor in 272 BC, died in office.Frontinus, De Aquaeductu, i. 6. Lucius Papirius, a contemporary of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, father of the Gracchi. Cicero considered Papirius among the finest orators of his age, and mentions a speech that Papirius gave in the senate on behalf of the people of Fregellae and the Latin colonies.Cicero, Brutus, 46.Meyer, Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta, p. 154 (Second Edition). Papirius Potamo, a scriba and friend of Quintus Caecilius Niger, the quaestor of Verres, who became his employer when Caecilius left Sicily. Potamo became one of those through whom Verres worked his depredations upon the people, and was derided by Cicero for his role.Cicero, In Verrem, iii. 60, 66, Divinatio in Caecilium, 9. Lucius Papirius Paetus, a friend of Cicero, who describes him as a learned man, and an Epicurean. He possessed little knowledge of his family, and did not realize that the Papirii were of patrician origin. In one letter, Cicero undertook to enlighten him, extolling the virtues of his patrician ancestors, whom he encouraged Paetus to emulate, while denigrating the follies of the plebeians.Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, ix. 15–26, Epistulae ad Atticum, i. 20. § 7, ii. 1. § 12.
Papirii Mugillani et Cursores Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, was elected consul suffectus in 444 BC, the year in which the first college of consular tribunes was obliged to resign due to a fault in the auspices. The following year, he was one of the first censors, together with Lucius Sempronius Atratinus, his colleague in the consulship.Livy, iv. 7, 8, 30.Dionysius, xi. 62.Fasti Capitolini.Broughton, vol. I, p. 53. Lucius Papirius L. f. Mugillanus, consul in 427 BC, and consular tribune in 422. As interrex for holding the comitia in 420 BC, he authored a law permitting the election of plebeian quaestors. He was censor in 418.Livy, iv. 44.Broughton, vol. I, pp. 66, 69, 71, 72. Marcus Papirius Mugillanus, consular tribune in 418 and 416 BC, and perhaps consul in 411.Livy, iv. 45, 47, 52.Broughton, vol. I, pp. 72, 73, 76, 77 (note 1). Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, consular tribune in 382, 380, and 376 BC.Livy, vi. 22, 27.Diodorus Siculus, xv. 71.Broughton, vol. I, pp. 103–106, 108, 109. Lucius Papirius (Mugillanus), censor in 393 BC, and consular tribune in 387 and 385.Livy, vi. 5, 11, ix. 34.Broughton, vol. I, pp. 91, 92, 99–102. Spurius Papirius L. f. (Mugillanus), father of the dictator Lucius Papirius Cursor.Broughton, vol. I, p. 136. Lucius Papirius Sp. f. L. n. Cursor, was appointed magister equitum by his cousin, the dictator Lucius Papirius Crassus, in 340 BC. He was consul in 326, the first year of the Second Samnite War, and was nominated dictator the following year, in which he earned a triumph. Consul again in 320 and 319, he earned a second triumph. He was consul twice more, in 315 and 313, and dictator for a second time in 310, following which he received a third triumph.Livy, viii. 12, 23, 29, 30–36, 47, ix. 7, 12, 13–16, 22, 28, 38, 40.Aurelius Victor, De Viris Illustribus, 31.Eutropius, ii. 4.Orosius, iii. 15.Cassius Dio, Excerpta Vaticana, p. 32 ff. (ed. Sturz).Niebuhr, History of Rome, iii. pp. 192–250.Broughton, vol. I, pp. 136, 137 (note 3), 146–148, 152, 153, 156–158, 162, 163.