contained two families, the names of which are CARUS and ELVA. The former was plebeian, the latter patrician; but the gens was originally patrician. Cornicen does not seem to have been a family-name, but only a surname given to Postumus Aebutius Elva, who was consul in B. C. 442. This gens was distinguished in the early ages, but from the time of the above-mentioned Aebutius Elva, no patrician member of it held any curule office till the praetorship of M. Aebutius Elva in B. C. 176.

It is doubtful to which of the family P. Aebutius belonged, who disclosed to the consul the existence of the Bacchanalia at Rome, and was rewarded by the senate in consequence, B. C. 186. (Liv. 39.9, 11, 19.)