The only family name of the Laelii was Balbus, a common
cognomen, referring to one who stammers. A few of the Laelii used personal surnames, such as Sapiens ("wise"), by which the Laelius who was a friend of the younger
Scipio Africanus was sometimes known.[1][2][3]
Members
This list includes abbreviated
praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see
filiation.
Early Laelii
Gaius Laelius, grandfather of Gaius Laelius, consul in 190 BC.
Gaius Laelius C. f., the father of Gaius Laelius, consul in 190 BC.
Gaius Laelius C. f. C. n. Sapiens, consul in BC 140, and a close friend of the younger Scipio Africanus. He initially favoured agrarian reform, but after meeting resistance abandoned the effort, and opposed the efforts of the Gracchi, leading his aristocratic contemporaries to call him Sapiens, "the wise". He was erudite and refined, but a less persuasive speaker than some of his contemporaries.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]
Laelia C. f. C. n. Major, married Quintus Mucius Scaevola, the augur. Laelia was renowned for her graceful and eloquent speech, dignified and sincere, upon which
Cicero remarked, and which she passed down to her daughters, as well as her son-in-law, the orator
Lucius Licinius Crassus.[20]
Decimus Laelius D. f., impeached Lucius Valerius Flaccus for repetundae in his administration of
Asia, BC 59. During the
Civil War, Laelius was a loyal commander and emissary in the Pompeian forces.[26][27][28]
Decimus Laelius D. f. D. n. Balbus, quaestor pro praetore in Africa in 42 BC, took his own life following the defeat of Quintus Cornificius by Titus Sextius, who had been nominated proconsul by the
triumvirs.[29][30]
^Cicero, Laelius sive de Amicitia, 8, 11, 25; Brutus, 21, 22, 24, 43; Tusculanae Quaestiones, iv. 3, v. 19; De Officiis, i. 26, 30, ii. 11; De Finibus, ii. 8; Epistulae ad Atticum, vii. 3; Philippicae, ii. 33, De Natura Deorum, iii. 2, 17; De Oratore, ii. 6, 7, iii. 7. § 28; De Republica, i. 39; vi. 2; Topica, 20. § 78.
^Plutarch, Regum et Imperatorium Apophthegmata, p. 200; "The Life of Tiberius Gracchus", 8.
The only family name of the Laelii was Balbus, a common
cognomen, referring to one who stammers. A few of the Laelii used personal surnames, such as Sapiens ("wise"), by which the Laelius who was a friend of the younger
Scipio Africanus was sometimes known.[1][2][3]
Members
This list includes abbreviated
praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see
filiation.
Early Laelii
Gaius Laelius, grandfather of Gaius Laelius, consul in 190 BC.
Gaius Laelius C. f., the father of Gaius Laelius, consul in 190 BC.
Gaius Laelius C. f. C. n. Sapiens, consul in BC 140, and a close friend of the younger Scipio Africanus. He initially favoured agrarian reform, but after meeting resistance abandoned the effort, and opposed the efforts of the Gracchi, leading his aristocratic contemporaries to call him Sapiens, "the wise". He was erudite and refined, but a less persuasive speaker than some of his contemporaries.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]
Laelia C. f. C. n. Major, married Quintus Mucius Scaevola, the augur. Laelia was renowned for her graceful and eloquent speech, dignified and sincere, upon which
Cicero remarked, and which she passed down to her daughters, as well as her son-in-law, the orator
Lucius Licinius Crassus.[20]
Decimus Laelius D. f., impeached Lucius Valerius Flaccus for repetundae in his administration of
Asia, BC 59. During the
Civil War, Laelius was a loyal commander and emissary in the Pompeian forces.[26][27][28]
Decimus Laelius D. f. D. n. Balbus, quaestor pro praetore in Africa in 42 BC, took his own life following the defeat of Quintus Cornificius by Titus Sextius, who had been nominated proconsul by the
triumvirs.[29][30]
^Cicero, Laelius sive de Amicitia, 8, 11, 25; Brutus, 21, 22, 24, 43; Tusculanae Quaestiones, iv. 3, v. 19; De Officiis, i. 26, 30, ii. 11; De Finibus, ii. 8; Epistulae ad Atticum, vii. 3; Philippicae, ii. 33, De Natura Deorum, iii. 2, 17; De Oratore, ii. 6, 7, iii. 7. § 28; De Republica, i. 39; vi. 2; Topica, 20. § 78.
^Plutarch, Regum et Imperatorium Apophthegmata, p. 200; "The Life of Tiberius Gracchus", 8.