Asi'nia Gens
plebeian. The Asinii came from Teate, the chief town of the Marrucini (
Sil. Ital. 17.453;
Liv. Epit. 73; Catull. 12); and their name is derived from
asina, which was a cognomen of the Scipios, as
asellus was of the Annii and Claudii. The Herius, spoken of by Silius Italicus (
l.c.) in the time of the second Punic war, about B. C. 218, was an ancestor of the Asinii; but the first person of the name of Asinius, who occurs in history, is Herius Asinius, in the Marsic war, B. C. 90. [ASINIUS.] The cognomens of the Asinii are AGRIPPA, CELER, DENTO, GALLUS.
POLLIO, SALONINUS. The only cognomens which occur on coins, are GALLUS and POLLIO. (Eckhel, v. p. 144.)