Malleolus

1. M. Publicius Malleolus, L. F. L. N., consul B. C. 232 with M. Aemilius Lepidus, was sent with his colleague against the Sardinians. (Zonar. viii. p. 401c.) It was this M. Publicius and his brother L. Publicius who built in their aedileship the temple of Flora, instituted the Florales Ludi, and also built the beautiful clivus (Publicius Clivus) which led up the Aventine. They executed these works with the money obtained from the fines which were exacted from the persons who had violated the agrarian laws. Varro and Ovid call them plebeian, but Festus curule aediles. (Tac. Ann. 2.49; Festus, p. 238, ed. Müller; Ov. Fast. 5.279, &c.; Varro, L. L. 5.158, ed. Müller.) Their aedileship must have fallen in B. C. 240, as we learn from Velleius Paterculus (1.14) that the Florales Ludi were instituted in that year. (Compare Pighius, Annal. vol. ii. p. 72.)

2. L. Publicius Malleolus, L. F. L. N., aedile with his brother in B. C. 240, as is mentioned above. We may conclude, from his praenomen being the same as that of their father, that he was the elder brother.

3. Publicius Malleolus killed his mother, and was in consequence sewn up in a sack, and cast into the sea. This occurred in B. C. 101, and is mentioned as the first instance of this crime which had occurred among the Romans. (Oros. 5.16; Liv. Epit. 58; Cic. ad Herenn. 1.13.)

4. C. Publicius Malleolus, quaestor to Cn. Dolabella in Cilicia, B. C. 80, died in the province, and was succeeded in his office by Verres, who also became the tutor of his son. Malleolus had amassed great wealth in the province by plundering the provincials, but, according to the statement of Cicero, Verres took good care to apply the greater part of it to his own use. Cicero further says, that Malleolus was killed (occisus) by Verres, but this is probably an oratorical exaggeration, as the scholiast suggests. (Cic. Ver. 1.15, 36; Pseudo-Ascon. ad ll. cc.)