Hamilton, Madison, and Jay published The Federalist Papers under the collective pseudonym Publius.
The name appeared on 85 essays printed from 1787 to 1788 to support ratification of the proposed United States Constitution. Alexander Hamilton chose the Roman name, referencing Publius Valerius Publicola, associated with the founding of the Roman Republic.
Using one pseudonym gave the essays a unified public identity and concealed disagreements over individual authorship. The authorship of the essays was not immediately known, although readers soon speculated about the writers.
Modern scholarship generally assigns 51 essays to Hamilton, 29 to Madison, and 5 to John Jay. The Federalist Papers are now a major source for interpreting the Constitution, but they were originally newspaper arguments aimed at New York ratification debates.