Contarini

[2] In total eight Doges to the Republic of Venice emerged from this family,[2][3][4] as well as 44 Procurators of San Marco,[3] numerous ambassadors, diplomats and other notables.

The last person to register Cottareno was Marcus Aurelius Cottareno in Padua in 290 AD and subsequently the family name was written as Contareno, or Contarini in Venetian (both the Latin and Venetian denomination of the family name have been used interchangeably since).

[2] In 425 another Marcus Aurelius Contarini took part in the third Consular Triumvirate[8][9] of Rialto, following the invasions of the Goths under Alaric I, who from 402 pillaged the rich provinces of Istria and Venetia and sacked Rome in 410.

From the outset the affairs of the early exiles in the islands of the Venetian lagoon were managed by Roman Consuls elected at Padua, including the Contarini.

[9] Following the invasion by the Huns of Attila in 452 and the destruction of the large Roman cities of Padua and Aquileia, the islands became a more permanent refuge for the swelling number of exiles.

[10] Whoever was historically the first, the Contarini family has since the earliest Venetian chronicles been associated with the birth of the Republic and election of the first Doge.

[13] As the first inhabitants in the lagoon came from what were provinces of Rome in the 5th century, the Rialto initially being governed by a Consular Triumvirate elected at Padua and subsequently by Tribunes who were elected from among the most prominent members in their former Roman communes, it is not uncommon among the oldest Venetian patrician families to find Roman ancestry (e.g. Quirini [it] descended from gens Sulpicii Quirini, Marcello descended from gens Claudii Marcelli),[3][4][14] families who often kept their praenomina traditions and preserved their genealogy.