Gaius Laelius - Further History

Further History

Laelius's wife is not known, but c. 188 BC, he fathered a legitimate son who would become consul in 140 BC - Gaius Laelius Sapiens.

Like other superannuated Roman generals, Laelius later served on embassies to King Perseus of Macedon (174-173 BC) and to Transalpine Gaul (170 BC).

It was also in 160 BC, when the aged Laelius (probably then in his mid-seventies) met the author Polybius in Rome during his last years, and gave him much first-hand information about Scipio Africanus. Polybius was a client of Scipio's brother-in-law Aemilius Paullus (who died suddenly in the same year 160 BC), and became a friend to both his sons, notably Scipio Aemilianus (Africanus's adoptive grandson).

Laelius appears to have died some years after 160 BC, but his year of death is not mentioned by Livy nor by Polybius.

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