Caelia (gens)

The gens Caelia or Coelia was a plebeian family at Rome. In manuscripts the nomen is usually written Caelius, while on coins it generally occurs in the form of Coelius or Coilius, though one coin has L. Caelius Tax. From the similarity of the names, Caelius is frequently confounded with Caecilius. No members of the gens obtained the higher offices of the state till the beginning of the 1st century BC; the first who obtained the consulship was Gaius Caelius Caldus in 94 BC.^[1]

Origin of the gens

The Caelia gens traced its origin to the Etruscan hero, Caeles Vibenna, in the time of the Roman kings. He and his brother, Aulus, were companions of "Mastarna", whose name appears to be an Etruscan rendering of the Latin magister (magistrate), and who has been identified with Servius Tullius, the sixth King of Rome.^[1][2]

According to one tradition, the Vibennae had been taken prisoner by the Roman Gnaeus Tarquinius, but were freed by Mastarna, and with their allies defeated and killed Tarquinius. This Gnaeus Tarquinius may have been a son of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth King of Rome, and the father of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last King of Rome, said in some traditions to have been the grandson, and not the son, of the elder Tarquin.^[1][2][3]

The Mons Caelius, or Caelian Hill, one of the famous seven hills upon which the city of Rome was built, is said to have been named after Caelius Vibenna, who settled there. It was formerly known as the Mons Querquetulanus, the oak-covered hill, by which name it was occasionally called even in later times.^[1][2][4]

Praenomina used by the gens

The Caelii used the praenomina Marcus, Lucius, Gaius, Publius, and Quintus, all of which were amongst the most common names at Rome.^[1]

Branches and cognomina of the gens

There were only two family-names in this gens, Caldus and Rufus. The other cognomina are personal surnames, chiefly of freedmen. Other Caelii bore no surname.

The word caldus is a shortened form of calidus, which may be translated "hot, eager, rash," or "hasty"; hence Cicero says, "aliquem Caldum vocari, quod temerario et repentino consilio sit." The surname Rufus means "red", and probably referred to the color of a person's hair.^[1][5]

Members of the gens

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

Early Caelii

• Marcus Caelius, tribune of the plebs, attacked in a speech by Marcus Porcius Cato, the censor.^[6]
• Lucius Caelius, commanded as a legate in Illyricum during the war against Perseus, in 169 BC, and was defeated in his attempt to take the town of Uscana.^[7]
• Lucius Coelius Antipater, a jurist and historian during the latter half of the 2nd century BC
• Publius Caelius, placed in command of Placentia by the consul Gnaeus Octavius in 87 BC, and when the town was taken by Cinna's army, he caused himself to be put to death, rather than fall into the hands of the Marian party.^[8]
• Publius Caelius (P. f.), praetor in 74 BC.^[9]
• Marcus Caelius, an eques, from whom Verres took away several silver vases, in 71 BC.^[10]
• Marcus Caelius Vinicianus, tribunus plebis in 53 BC, and subsequently a partisan of Caesar during the Civil War.
• Gaius Caelius, tribunus plebis in 51 BC, with several of his colleagues vetoed the senate's decrees directed against Caesar.^[11]
• Marcus Caelius Rufus, praetor peregrinus in 48 BC, during the Civil War, deprived of his office after deliberately causing a riot, and subsequently slain by the cavalry, whom he attempted to bribe to surrender the city of Thurii.
• Quintus Caelius, a friend and follower of Marcus Antonius, attacked by Cicero.^[12]
• Caelius, a moneylender, with whom Cicero had some dealings.^[13]

Caelii Caldi

• Gaius Caelius Caldus, consul in 94 BC, a novus homo and minor orator, subsequently a supporter of Marius.
• Lucius Caelius C. f. Caldus, son of the consul of 94 BC.
• Gaius Caelius L. f. C. n. Caldus, quaestor under Cicero in Cilicia in 50 BC; when Cicero departed the province, he left the administration in the hands of Caldus.^[14]
• Caelius Caldus, taken prisoner by the Germans following the defeat of Publius Quinctilius Varus in AD 9, killed himself rather than be subjected to the torture he anticipated.^[15]

Later Caelii

• Caelius Cursor, an eques, put to death by Tiberius, for having falsely charged the praetor Magius Caecilianus with treason.^[16]
• Caelius Pollio, commander of the Roman army in Armenia in AD 51, bribed by Rhadamistus to betray the cause of Mithridates, the Roman client king.^[17][18]
• Marcus Caelius Roscius, legate of the twentieth legion, stationed in Britannia at the time of Nero's death in AD 68.^[19]
• Marcus Caelius Sabinus, a jurist, appointed consul by the emperor Otho in AD 69, and retained by Aulus Vitellius.
• Caelius Firmianus Symposius, a poet, and the author of a series of riddles, of uncertain date.
• Caelius Aurelianus, a physician of uncertain date during the imperial period.
• Decimus Caelius Balbinus, Roman emperor with Marcus Clodius Pupienus in AD 238.
• Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius, a rhetorician, and early Christian author of the early 4th century.
• Caelius Apicius, the attributed author of a culinary treatise in ten books, probably in the 1st century AD.^[1]
• Coelius Sedulius, a Christian poet of the early 5th century.

See also

List of Roman gentes

References

 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.