Hostilia gens

The gens Hostilia was an ancient family at Rome, which traced its origin to the time of Romulus.

The most famous member of the gens was Tullus Hostilius, the third King of Rome; however, all of the Hostilii known from the time of the Republic were plebeians.

[1] The Hostilii came originally from Medullia, an ancient city in Latium, and are thought to have settled at Rome in the time of Romulus.

Although the Hostilii of the Republic had no specific tradition about Medullia, coins minted by one of the later Hostilii bear the heads of Pallor and Pavor, the gods of fear and panic, in an allusion to Tullus Hostilius, who vowed temples to Pallor and Pavor during his war with Veii and Fidenae.

[2] The nomen Hostilius is a patronymic surname, based on the praenomen Hostus, which was borne by the ancestors of the gens.