An honorable reputation not only lends greater persuasiveness to the words of the man who possesses it, but adds greater lustre to his deeds, and is, therefore, more zealously to be sought after by men of intelligence than anything else in the world. Isocrates. Antidosis. Speech 115. Section 280.
Image: A fresco depicting Ahala, master of the horse, presenting the dead Maelius to Cincinnatus the Dictator by Domenico di Pace Beccafumi, 1532-1535, at the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, Italy.
During a severe famine, Spurius Maelius bought up a large amount of wheat and sold it at a low price to the people of Rome. According to Livy, Lucius Minucius Augurinus, the patrician praefectus annonae (president of the market), thereupon accused him of collecting arms and holding secret meetings at which plans were being undoubtedly formed to establish a monarchy. The cry was taken up. Maelius, summoned before the aged Cincinnatus (specially appointed dictator), refused to appear, and was slain by the Master of the Horse, Gaius Servilius Ahala. Afterward his house was razed to the ground, his wheat distributed amongst the people, and his property confiscated. The open space called the Equimaelium, on which his house had stood, preserved the memory of his death along the Vicus Jugarius. 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 Lex Valeria Horatia de provocatione the dictator was bound to allow the right of appeal. So this appears to be a case where a heinous deed was overshadowed by the honorable reputation of Cincinnatus. Perhaps if Spurius Maelius had cultivated a more honorable reputation his philanthropic act would not have been viewed with suspicion. As it is, in hindsight, I would suspect the magistrate of the market of condemning Maelius because his actions thwarted attempts of the wealthy to price gouge during the crisis.
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