Quinctilia gens

The gens Quinctilia, also written Quintilia, was a patrician family at ancient Rome, dating from the earliest period of Roman history, and continuing well into imperial times.

It was not unusual for multiple nomina to be derived from a common source; the Sabine name Pompo is the Oscan equivalent of Quintus, and gave rise to the gentes Pompilia and Pomponia.

When the brothers Romulus and Remus had restored their grandfather, Numitor, to the throne of Alba Longa, they set out to establish a new city in the hills overlooking the Tiber.

They offered up sacrifices in the cave of the Lupercal at the base of the Palatine Hill, which rite became the origin of the religious festival of the Lupercalia.

Such sacred rites were gradually transferred to the state, or opened to the Roman populus; a well-known legend attributed the destruction of the Potitii to the abandonment of their religious office.