Maelia (gens)

Praenomina

Branches and cognomina

Members

• Spurius Maelius, a wealthy grain merchant, accused of treason and slain without trial in 439 BC. Although his guilt was universally accepted in antiquity, modern historians doubt that there is any truth to the charge. Niebuhr suggests that his goal was to obtain the consulship for himself, and open the magistracy to the plebeians. None of Maelius' supposed accomplices were tried or punished, but his slayer, Ahala, went into exile rather than face trial.
• Spurius Maelius, tribune of the plebs in 436 BC, he sought to confiscate the property of Ahala, the magister equitum who had slain his kinsman, but his bill was defeated. His relationship to the dead grain merchant is unknown.
• Gaius Maelius S. f., father of the consular tribune.
• Publius Maelius C. f. S. n. Capitolinus, one of the consular tribunes in 400 and 396 BC. Livy describes him as one of the first plebeians to hold this magistracy in the former year, although it is likely that some of the consular tribunes of 444 and 422 had been plebeians.
• Quintus Maelius, tribune of the plebs in 320 BC, urged the Romans to keep the peace they had been granted by the Samnites after the disaster of the Caudine Forks. Maelius had been an officer in the army that surrendered to the Samnites, and was released on the condition that all of the magistrates, including the plebeian tribunes, should become hostages of the Samintes after delivering their report to Rome. Maelius was one of the magistrates who willingly accepted this fate, but the Samnites refused the hostages, suspecting them to be a pretext for renewing the war.

  Footnotes