Ahala
Encyclopedia
Ahala was in ancient Rome
the name of a patrician family of the Servilia
gens
. There were also several persons of this gens with the name of Structus Ahala, who may have formed a different family from the Ahalae; but as the Ahalae and Structi Ahalae are frequently confounded, all the persons of these names are given here.
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
the name of a patrician family of the Servilia
Servilia (gens)
The gens Servilia was a patrician family at Rome. The gens was celebrated during the early ages of the Republic, and the names of few gentes appear more frequently at this period in the consular Fasti. It continued to produce men of influence in the state down to the latest times of the Republic,...
gens
Gens
In ancient Rome, a gens , plural gentes, referred to a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps . The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the...
. There were also several persons of this gens with the name of Structus Ahala, who may have formed a different family from the Ahalae; but as the Ahalae and Structi Ahalae are frequently confounded, all the persons of these names are given here.
- Gaius Servilius Structus Ahala, consulRoman consulA consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...
in 478 BC, died in his year of office, as appears from the FastiFastiIn ancient Rome, the fasti were chronological or calendar-based lists, or other diachronic records or plans of official and religiously sanctioned events...
. - Gaius Servilius Structus AhalaGaius Servilius AhalaGaius Servilius Structus Ahala was a 5th century BC politician of ancient Rome, considered by many later writers to have been a hero. His fame rested on the contention that he saved Rome from Spurius Maelius in 439 BC by killing him with a dagger concealed under an armpit...
, legendary Roman hero of the 5th century BC - Gaius Servilius Q. f. C. n. Structus Ahala, consulRoman consulA consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...
in 427 BC. - Gaius Servilius P. f. Q. n. Structus Ahala, consular tribuneTribuneTribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
in 408 BC, and magister equitum in the same year; which latter dignity he obtained in consequence of supporting the senateRoman SenateThe Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
against his colleagues, who did not wish a dictatorDictatorA dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
to be appointed. For the same reason he was elected consular tribune a second time in the following year, 407 BC. He was consular tribune a third time in 402 BC, when he assisted the senate in compelling his colleagues who had been defeated by the enemy to resign. - Gaius Servilius Ahala, magister equitum in 389 BC, when CamillusCamillusIn ancient Rome, a camillus was an acolyte in various rituals. If the camillus was a child of the cult's officiant , the child had to be free-born and under the age of puberty, and both parents had to be alive.Camillus was also a cognomen derived from the general term, most famously used by...
was appointed dictatorDictatorA dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
for a third time. Ahala is spoken of as magister equitum in 385 BC, on occasion of the trial of Marcus Manlius Capitolinus. Manlius summoned him to bear witness in his favor, as one of those whose lives he had saved in battle; but Ahala did not appear. PlinyPliny the ElderGaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
, who mentions this circumstance, calls Ahala "Publius Servilius". - Quintus Servilius Q. f. Q. n. Ahala, consulRoman consulA consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...
in 365 BC, and again in 362 BC, in the latter of which years he appointed Appius ClaudiusAppius ClaudiusThere were a number of Romans named Appius Claudius:* Appius Claudius Sabinus Inregillensis, consul in 495 BC* Appius Claudius Crassus, a decemvir in 451 BC* Appius Claudius Caecus , censor in 312 BC...
dictator, after his plebeian colleague Lucius Genucius had been slain in battle. In 360 BC he was himself appointed dictatorDictatorA dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
in consequence of a Gallic tumultus and defeated the GaulGaulGaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
s near the Colline gate. He held the comitia as interrexInterrexThe Interrex was literally a ruler "between kings" during the Roman Kingdom and the Roman Republic. He was in effect a short-term regent....
in 355 BC. - Quintus Servilius Q. f. Q. n. Ahala, magister equitum in 351 BC, when Marcus Fabius was appointed dictator to frustrate the Licinian lawLex Licinia SextiaLex Licinia Sextia was a Roman law introduced around 376 BCE and enacted in 367 BCE. It restored the consulship, allegedly reserved one of the two consular positions for a plebeian , and introduced new limits on the possession of conquered land.- Authors :It is named for the plebeian tribunes Gaius...
, and consulRoman consulA consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...
in 342 BC, at the beginning of the First Samnite War. He remained in the city; his colleague had the charge of the war.