Gaius Laelius Sapiens

Gaius Laelius was a politician of the Roman Republic and friend of Scipio Aemilianus.

His eponymous father was friends with the elder Scipio. The son wrong with writers ( Terence, towards the end of his life, Lucilius ) and philosophers, which earned him the nickname Sapiens ( " the way "). 147 and 146 BC, he was legate of his friend Scipio Aemilianus in the Third Punic War and helped him considerably in the conquest of Carthage. 145 and he was probably involved praetor the following year as propraetor in Spain in the fight against Viriathus. 140 BC Laelius was Consul and remained in Rome, while his colleague Quintus Servilius Caepio took over the war in Spain. Laelius should have probably tried with the approval of Scipio, in his consulship, to improve the lot of the Italian peasants, but he met with opposition from his senatorial peers, which could take him by the plan distance ( the problem at hand a few years later the tribune Tiberius Gracchus again ).

Laelius was in the following years, repeated politically active (during attempts at reform of Tiberius Gracchus on the side of its opponents ) and is said to have written 129 BC the funeral oration on Scipio. He probably died between this year and 123 BC One of his daughters was married to Quintus Mucius Scaevola.

The friendship between Laelius and Scipio was considered exemplary, so that Marcus Tullius Cicero as a starting point for his writing Laelius de amicitia ( "On Friendship " ) took over. Laelius is Cicero's interlocutors in other dialogues.