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.[1]
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.[2][3][4][1]
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.[i][4][2][5][6][7][8][9]
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.[10][11][12][13][14][15]
The Pinarii of the early Republic used the praenomina Publius and Lucius. They are also thought to have used Mamercus, although no examples of this name as a praenomen amongst the Pinarii are found in ancient writers; however, the use of Mamercus or Mamercinus as a cognomen by the oldest family of the gens seems to prove that the praenomen was once used by the gens. In later times, some of the Pinarii bore the names Marcus and Titus.
The only family of the Pinarii mentioned in the early days of the Republic bore the cognomen Mamercinus. Later, the surnames of Natta, Posca, Rusca, and Scarpus appear, but no members of these families obtained the consulship. Natta and Scarpus are the only cognomina that occur on coins.[1]
The family of the Pinarii Mamercini, all of whom bore the agnomen Rufus, meaning "red", derived their surname from the praenomen Mamercus, which must have been borne by an ancestor of the gens. In Greek authors, it is sometimes found as Mamertinus, apparently by analogy with the Mamertini, a group of Italian mercenaries.[16][17]
Natta or Nacca, referring to a fuller, was the surname of an old and noble family of the Pinarii, which flourished from the fourth century BC into imperial times. Cicero mentions the family, and an ancient bronze statue of one of its members, which was struck by lightning in 65 BC.[18][19][20]
The Pinarii are the focus of the novels Roma, Empire, and Dominus by Steven Saylor. These novels follow the history of Rome, and concern the fortunes of the Potitii and Pinarii, through the passing down of a family heirloom. Most of the Pinarii depicted in the novels are fictional, though Saylor keeps to the known facts about the family.