The name first appears in the Roman literary tradition during the reign of Tullus Hostilius—the legendary third King of Rome—at the occasion of the combat between the Horatii and the Curiatii.
His nephew Horatius Cocles played the leading role in the legendary Battle of the Sublician Bridge in 508, and his son Gaius was twice consul in 477 and 457.
Pulvillus was elected tribunus militum consulari potestate ("military tribune with consular power") in 386 in a college of six members.
His colleagues were Marcus Furius Camillus, Servius Cornelius Maluginensis, Quintus Servilius Fidenas, Lucius Quinctius Cicinnatus, and Publius Valerius Potitus Poplicola.
[1] The college was dominated by the figure of Camillus, the saviour of Rome against the Gauls who had just sacked the city the year before, and to whom the other tribunes willingly abdicated their independent authority, making him dictator in all but name.