Gallius

• name of a Roman gens.
• • • 1 M. Gallius, praetor A. U. C. 711, Cic. Att. 10, 15, 4; id. Phil. 13, 12, 26.—
    • 2 Q. Gallius, accused of ambitus, and defended by Cicero A. U. C. 690; see the fragments in Orell. Cic. IV. 2, p. 454.

1. Q. Gallius, was a candidate for the praetorship in B. C. 64, and accused of ambitus by M. Calidius; but he was defended on that occasion by Cicero in an oration of which only a few fragments have come down to us. He appears to have been acquitted, for he was invested with the city praetorship in B. C. 63, and presided at the trial of C. Cornelius. (Cic. Brut. 80, de Petit. Cons. 5; Ascon. in Cic. in tog. cand. p. 88, in Cornel. p. 62, ed. Orelli. See the fragments of Cicero's oration for Gallius in Orelli's edition, vol. iv. part 2, p. 454, &c.; V. Max. 8.10.3.)

2. M. Gallius, a son of No. 1. He is called a praetorian; but the year in which he was invested with the praetorship is uncertain. He belonged to the party of Antony, with whom he was staying in B. C. 43. He seems to be the same as the senator M. Gallius, by whom Tiberius, in his youth, was adopted, and who left him a large legacy, although Tiberius afterwards dropped the name of his adoptive father. (Cic. Att. 10.15, 11.20; Philip. 13.12; Suet. Tib. 6.)

3. Q. Gallius, a son of No. 1, and a brother of No. 2, was praetor urbanus in B. C. 43, and in that fearful time became one of the many victims that were sacrificed by the triumvirs. During his praetorship he had one day, while engaged on his tribunal, some tablets concealed under his robe ; and Octavianus, suspecting that he had arms under his cloak, and that he harbored murderous designs, ordered his centurions and soldiers to seize him. As Q. Gallius denied the charge, Octavianus ordered him to be put to death, though afterwards in his memoirs he endeavoured to conceal the cruelty of which he had thus been guilty. (Suet. Aug. 27.) Appian (App. BC 3.95), probably in consequence of the manner in which Octavianus had reported his own conduct, relates the event differently. Gallius, he says, asked Octavianus to give him Africa as his province after the praetorship. But having incurred the suspicion of a design upon the life of the triumvir, he was deprived of his office, and the populace demolished his house. The senate declared him guilty of a capital crime, but Octavianus inflicted no other punishment on him than sending him to his brother Marcus [No. 2], who was then with Antony. Gallius embarked, and was never head of afterwards.

4.Quintius Gallius, so at least his name appears in the best MS., for others read Q. Gallius or Q. Gallus, seems to have been legate of Q. Marcius Philippus, the proconsul of Asia. Two of Cicero's letters (ad Fam. 13.43 and 44) are addressed to him.

5. C. Gallius, a person otherwise unknown, but who, according to Valerius Maximus (6.1.13), was caught in the act of adultery by Sempronius Musca, and scourged to death. [L.S]

Quintus. A Roman who stood for the praetorship in B.C. 64. As a result of the election, he was accused of bribery by M. Calidius, and defended by Cicero in an oration of which only fragments remain. He was praetor in B.C. 63, and presided at the trial of C. Cornelius. His son, Q. Gallius, was praetor in B.C. 43, and was put to death by the Second Triumvirate.