A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Μουρήνας, the name of a family of the Licinia gens, which was originally from Lanuvium, now Cività Lavigna, an old Latin town near the Via Appia. The name Murena, which is the proper way of writing the word, not Muraena, is said to have been given in consequence of one of the family having a great liking for the lamprey (murena), and building tanks (vivaria) for them, (Plin. Nat. 9.54, ed. Hard.; Macrob. Saturn. 2.11.)