According to tradition, the Papirii had already achieved prominence in the time of the kings, and the first Rex Sacrorum and Pontifex Maximus of the Republic were members of this gens.
Although the most illustrious Papirii flourished in the time of the Republic, a number of the family continued to hold high office during the first two centuries of the Empire.
Cicero lists the patrician cognomina of the Papirii as Crassus, Cursor, Maso, and Mugillanus, while the plebeian families included those of Carbo, Paetus, and Turdus.
[4] It must have been in the vicinity of the Volscian towns of Pollusca and Corioli, but it was evidently deserted at a very early date, as Pliny does not mention it among his list of former cities in Latium.
[13][14] Among the plebeian branches of the Papiria gens, the most important was that surnamed Carbo, referring to a piece of coal or charcoal; metaphorically, something black, or of little value.
[17] Paetus, the surname of Cicero's plebeian friend, referred to a mild defect of vision, variously described as "blink-eyed", or "squinty".
This common cognomen implied a lesser deficit than Strabo, "squinty", Luscus, "one-eyed", or Caecus, "blind", and could even be regarded as endearing; it was an epithet of Venus.
[18][19][20] Cicero describes the Papirii Turdi as a plebeian family, although only one of them is mentioned in history: Gaius Papirius Turdus, tribune of the plebs in 177 BC.