SPURIUS

MAELIUS (d. 439 B.C.)  , a wealthy Roman plebeian, who during a severe famine bought up a large amount of corn and sold it at a low price to the people . Lucius (or Gaius) Minucius, the patrician praefectus annotate (president of the market), thereupon accused him of courting popularity with a view to making himself king . The cry was taken up . Maelius, summoned before the aged Cincinnatus (specially appointed dictator), refused to appear, and was slain by Gaius Servilius Ahala; his house was razed to the ground, his corn distributed amongst the people, and his property confiscated . The open space called Aequimaelium, on which his house had stood, preserved the memory of his death . Cicero calls Ahala's deed a glorious one, but, whether Maelius entertained any ambitious projects or not, his summary execution was an act of murder, since by the Valerio-Horatian laws the dictator was bound , to allow the right of appeal . See Niebuhr's History of Rome, ii . 418 (Eng. trans., 1831) ; G . Cornewall Lewis, Credibility of early Roman History, ii.; Livy, iv . 13; Cicero, De senectute 16, De amicitia 8, De republica, ii . 27; Floras, i . 26; Dion .

Halic. xii . 1 .