Maelius, Spurius

▪ Roman plebeian

died 439 BC

      wealthy Roman plebeian who allegedly tried to buy popular support with the aim of making himself king. During the severe famine of 440–439, he bought up a large store of grain and sold it at a low price to the people of Rome. This led Lucius Minucius, the patrician praefectus annonae (“president of the grain supply”), to accuse Maelius of seeking to take over the government. Shortly thereafter, Maelius was killed—supposedly by a man named Gaius Servilius Ahala—and his house razed. The story is found in sources from the 2nd century BC, including works by the historian Lucius Cincius Alimentus and the poet Ennius. The tale may have begun as an explanation of the origin of the Aequimaelium, an area with no buildings on the south side of the Capitoline Hill, where Maelius's house supposedly stood before it was “made equal” (aequata) to the ground, or razed.

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