The gens Papia was a plebeian family at Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned at the time of the Samnite Wars, but do not appear at Rome until the final century of the Republic. Marcus Papius Mutilus was the only member of the family to attain the consulship, which he held in AD 9.
Origin
The Papii were probably of Samnite origin, and several of this family appear in history in connection with the Samnite Wars and the Social War. Chase lists Papius among those gentilicia which were of Oscan derivation, in this case from the Oscan cognomenPapus, of which another cognomen, Papilus, appears to be a cognate. However, the Papii themselves maintained that they had come fromLanuvium, an ancient city of Latium, and a coin of the gens alludes to one of the founding myths of Lavinium, a town with which Lanuvium was frequently confounded.
Praenomina
The Papii who appear in ancient historians and achieved prominence at Rome bore the praenominaGaius, Lucius, and Marcus, the three most common names throughout Roman history. From the filiation of the consul Mutilus, we know that the Papii had also used Numerius, a much less common name, frequently although not exclusively associated with families of Samnite origin.
Branches and cognomina
Among the cognomina borne by the Papii at Rome were Celsus, Mutilus, and Faustus. Celsus would have been given to someone who was conspicuously tall, while Mutilus refers to someone maimed or deformed. Faustus, meaning "fortunate" or "lucky", was an old praenomen that came into widespread use as a surname during imperial times.
Members
Publius Papius, quaestor in 409 BC, and his colleague, Quintus Silius, were the first two plebeians to hold that office.
Papius Brutulus, a Samnite, who encouraged his people to resist Rome during the Second Samnite War.
Gaius Papius Mutilus, one of the Samnite generals during the Social War. In 90 BC, he invaded Campania with great success, before suffering a strong defeat by the consul Lucius Julius Caesar. In the following year he was totally defeated by Sulla, and fled to Aesernia. He probably perished a few years later, in the proscriptions of Sulla.
Lucius Papius L. f. Celsus, triumvir monetalis in 45 BC. He minted a number of coins alluding to the foundation myth of Lavinium, depicting a wolf bringing dry wood to feed the fire that cleared land for the town, and an eagle that fanned the flames with its wings.
Marcus Papius M. f. N. n. Mutilus, consul suffectus ex Kal. Jul. in AD 9, was one of the authors of the lex Papia Poppaea, a law intended to discourage adultery and encourage lawful marriage. He is probably the same Papius Mutilus listed by Tacitus among the senators who chose to flatter Tiberius in AD 16.
