The gens Cominia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome, which appears in history from the Republic to imperial times.
[1] The surname Auruncus, borne by the consul of 501 BC, suggests that the Cominii might have been of Auruncan origin, although if this were so, the family had reached the highest level of Roman society by the beginning of the Republic.
Furthermore, Valerius Maximus suggests that the nomen of Auruncus is uncertain, and that he might instead have belonged to the Postumia gens, although modern historians agree that Postumus was most likely his praenomen.
[5] The first of the family known to history bore the surname Auruncus, suggesting some connection with the Aurunci, a people who lived to the southeast of Latium.
[7] Whether the cognomen should be interpreted as meaning that the family migrated from there to Rome under the kings, or whether the consul of 501 BC acquired it as a personal surname is unknown, but the Romans fought against the Aurunci beginning in 503.