The Papiria gens was one of the main patrician families first, and later also plebeian, of ancient Rome. The history of this gens is the main theme of one of Cicero's letters to Papirius Peto, who did not know that any Papyri would ever have been a patrician, Cicero says that the Papyri were originally called Papisii ("Papisios"), and that the First person who adopted the name Papirio was Lucio Papirio Crassus, consul in 336 a. C ..
Cicero also asserts that the Papyrios patricians belonged to the minor people, and that they were divided into the families of cognomina Crassus, Cursor, Maiso and Mugillanus. The main cognomina of the plebeian branch were Carbus, Paetus and Turdus.
Of these, the oldest family was that of the Mugilano, and the first member of the gens Papiria elected consul was Lucio Papirio Mugilano, in 444 a. C. The gens, however, was even older, and is traditionally dated from the monarchical era. The Papyrus that dictated the Leges Regiae lived, according to the sources, in the reign of Tarquinio el Soberbio (see below), and M. Papirio was the first rex sacrificulus named after the expulsion of the kings.
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