Aelia (gens)

The gens Aelia, occasionally written Ailia, was a plebeian family at Rome, which flourished from the fifth century BC until at least the third century AD, a period of nearly eight hundred years. The archaic spelling Ailia is found on coins, but must not be confused with Allia, which is a distinct gens. The first member of the family to obtain the consulship was Publius Aelius Paetus in 337 BC.

Under the empire the Aelian name became still more celebrated. It was the name of the emperor Hadrian, and consequently of the Antonines, whom he adopted. A number of landmarks built by Hadrian also bear the name Aelius. The Pons Aelius is a bridge in Rome, now known as the Ponte Sant'Angelo. Pons Aelius also refers to a Roman settlement in Britannia Inferior, now the site of Newcastle upon Tyne, while Aelia Capitolina was a Roman colony built on the ruins of Jerusalem.^[1]

Praenomina

The Aelii regularly used the praenomina Publius, Sextus, Quintus, and Lucius. There is also one example of Gaius amongst the early members of the gens.^[1]

Branches and cognomina

The family-names and surnames of the Aelia gens are Catus, Gallus, Gracilis, Lamia, Ligur, Paetus, Staienus, Stilo, and Tubero. The only cognomina found on coins are Bala, Lamia, Paetus, and Sejanus. Of Bala nothing is known. Sejanus is the name of the favorite of the emperor Tiberius, who was adopted by one of the Aelii.^[1]

Members

This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.

Aelii Paeti

• Publius Aelius, one of the first plebeian quaestors, in 409 BC.^[2]
• Publius Aelius Paetus, consul in 337 BC, and one of the first plebeian augurs in 300 BC.
• Publius Aelius Paetus, plebeian aedile in 296 BC.^[3]
• Gaius Aelius Paetus, consul in 286 BC.^[4]
• Quintus Aelius Paetus, a pontifex who fell in the Battle of Cannae, 216 BC. He had been a candidate for the consulship that year.^[5]
• Publius Aelius Q. f. Paetus, a well-known jurist, consul in 201 BC.
• Sextus Aelius Q. f. Paetus Catus, an eminent jurist, consul in 198 BC.
• Quintus Aelius P. f. Q. n. Paetus, consul in 167 BC.

Aelii Tuberones

• Publius Aelius Tubero, praetor in 201 and 177 BC.
• Quintus Aelius Tubero, tribunus plebis in 194 BC, proposed the establishment of colonies among the Bruttii and Thurii, and appointed a commissioner for the foundation of the latter colony.^[6]
• Quintus Aelius Tubero, served under his father-in-law, Lucius Aemilius Paullus, in the war against Perseus in 168 BC.
• Quintus Aelius Q. f. Tubero, a jurist, praetor in 123 and consul suffectus in 118 BC.
• Lucius Aelius Tubero, a friend and relation of Cicero.
• Quintus Aelius L. f. Tubero, a jurist, and perhaps the same man as the consul of 11 BC.

Others

• Publius Aelius Ligus, consul in 172 BC.^[1]
• Lucius Aelius Stilo Praeconinus, a grammarian, and teacher of both Varro and Cicero.
• Aelius Ligur, tribunus plebis in 57 BC, opposed the recall of Cicero, according to whom, he had assumed a surname to which he had no right.^[7]
• Aelius Promotus, an ancient physician at Alexandria, perhaps during the 1st century BC.
• Gaius Aelius Gallus, governor of Egypt under Augustus; he was the adoptive father of Sejanus.
• Lucius Aelius Lamia, consul in AD 3.
• Sextus Aelius Catus, consul in AD 4.
• Aelius Theon, a 1st-century sophist.
• Aelius Catus, a commander, possibly the same as Sextus Aelius Catus.
• Lucius Aelius Sejanus, praetorian prefect under the emperor Tiberius.
• Aelia Paetina, wife of the emperor Claudius.
• Lucius Aelius Plautius Lamia Aemilianus, consul in AD 80.
• Publius Aelius Trajanus Hadrianus, emperor from AD 117 to 138.
• Aelius Dionysius, a Greek rhetorician during the reign of Hadrian.
• Lucius Aelius Caesar, Hadrian's heir, consul in AD 137.
• Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius, emperor from AD 138 to 161.
• Lucius Aelius Lamia Silvanus, married Aurelia Fadilla, the daughter of Antoninus Pius.^[1]
• Aelius Aristides, a 2nd-century orator.
• Publius Aelius Fortunatus, a 2nd-century painter.
• Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus, better known as Lucius Aelius Verus, emperor with Marcus Aurelius from AD 161 to 169.
• Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius; emperor from AD 176 to 192.
• Aelius Marcianus, a jurist of the early 3rd century.
• Aelius Spartianus, a historian, and one of the authors of the Historia Augusta. He wrote lives of several emperors from Hadrian to Caracalla.
• Aelius Donatus, a 4th-century grammarian and teacher of rhetoric.

See also

• List of Roman gentes

References

1. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
2. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita iv. 54.
3. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita x. 23.
4. Fasti Capitolini
5. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxiii. 21.
6. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Conditaxxxiv. 53, xxxv. 9.
7. Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Sext. 31, 32, 43, Pro Dom. 19, De Haruspicum Responsis 3.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "^{article name needed}". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.