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. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Mugilla was conquered by Coriolanus after he was banished from Rome and went over to the Volsci. 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. 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. 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. 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. The surname Maso, sometimes spelled Masso, is derived from the Latin massa, a "mass" or "lump". 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