1. L.AeliusLamia, was of equestrian rank, and distinguished himself by the zealous support which he afforded to Cicero in the suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy. So great were his services that he was marked out for vengeance by the popular party, and was accordingly banished (relegatus) by the influence of the consuls Gabinius and Piso in B. C. 58. He was subsequently recalled from exile; and during the civil wars he appears to have espoused Caesar's party, since we find that he obtained the aedileship in B. C. 45. During this time he lived on intimate terms with Cicero, and there are two letters of the latter to Brutus, intreating Brutus to use his influence to assist Lamia in his canvass for the praetorship. He seems to have carried his election, and would have been praetor in B. C. 43, the year in which Cicero was put to death. (Cic. pro Sest. 12, in Prison. 27, post Red. in Sen. 5, ad Att. 13.45, ad Fam. 11.16, 17.) This Lamia seems to be the same as the L. Lamia, praetorius vir, who is said to have been placed upon the funeral pile as if dead, and then to have recovered his senses, land to have spoken after the fire was lighted, when it was too late to save him from death. (V. Max. 1.8.12; Plin. Nat. 7.52.)
Lamia was the founder of his family, to whom he appears to have bequeathed considerable wealth, which was acquired by his commercial speculations as a Roman eques. We see from a letter of Cicero to Q. Cornificius that Lamia must have had extensive commercial transactions in Asia (ad Fam. 12.29); and his gardens at Rome (Horti Lamiani), which Cicero speaks of (ad Att. 12.21), were a well-known spot even in the time of the emperor Caligula. (Suet. Calig. 59.)