User:Blood3/Lucius Aelius Lamia, praetor of 43BCE


 * For Lamia's great grand-son by the same name, see Domitia Longina.

Lucius Aelius Lamia (before 82 BCE – after 43 BCE) was of equestrian rank, and father of Lucius Aelius Lamia the consul of 3CE. He, like his kinsman Lucius Aelius Tubero, was a close friend of orator Cicero and was actively involved in the suppression of the Second Catilinarian Conspiracy. He became the enemy of the Populares and by the influence of the consuls Gabinius and Piso, he was sent into exile in 58 BCE.

He was subsequently re­called from exile ; and during the civil wars he favoured Caesar over Pompey, obtaining the aedileship in 45 BCE. Despite this, he remained on intimate terms with Cicero, and Cicero was known to have sent two letters to Brutus, intreating Brutus to use his influence to assist Lamia in his canvass for the praetorship. .

He seems to have carried his election, and became praetor in 43 BCE, the year in which Cicero was put to death. Lucius Aelius Lamia is said to have been placed upon the funeral pile as if dead, and then to have recovered his senses, and to have spoken after the fire was lighted, when it was too late to save him from death. .

Lamia may have the founder of the Lamia stirpes of the Aelian gens, to whom he appears to have bequeathed considerable wealth, which was acquired by his commercial speculations as a Roman equestrian. We see from a letter of Cicero to Quintius Cornificius that Lamia must have had ex­tensive commercial transactions in Asia ; and his garden known as the Horti Lamiani was known to Cicero and was still existant in the time of Caligula.

Lamia's connection with the prominent Aelii Tuberones (including Aelia Paetina, second wife of the emperor Claudius) is not known. It is possible that as Lamia is a Greek city that he was born in that city and/or was related to another friend of Cicero: Lucius Aelius Tubero. Despite the similar names and friendship with Cicero, it is unlikely that he was the same person as Lucius Aelius Tubero, father of jurist Quintus Aelius Tubero and possible great-grandfather of Aelia Paetina.

Source

 * Val. Max. i. 8. § 12
 * Plin. H. N. vii. 52
 * Suet. Calig. 59
 * ad Fam. xii. 29
 * ad Att. xii. 21
 * Cic. pro Sest. 12, in Pison. 27, post Red. in Sen. 5
 * ad Att. xiii. 45
 * ad Fam. xi. 16, 17