Sapiens. His son's relationship with Scipio Aemilianus would, in many ways, mirror Laelius the Elder's own friendship with Scipio Africanus, Laelius the Younger fighting in the Third Punic War as Aemilianus' subordinate, and being his political ally and client as well, as part of the Scipionic Circle. 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 Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus (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 mentioned by neither Livy nor Polybius. In popular culture As a relatively minor figure in Roman history, media does not portray much of Gaius Laelius. George Handel's opera Scipione, about the romantic episode 'the Continence of Scipio', is one of the few cases. It has Laelius (Italianised to 'Lelio') assume, in addition to his historic role as Scipio's subordinate, an intermediary role between the Iberian princess Berenice and his friend, along with providing him with his own love interest. Recently, however, he has had a fairly prominent, albeit largely negative, role in Ross Leckie's Scipio and a minor role (though comparatively large next to the remainder of the Roman cast) in David Anthony Durham's Pride of Carthage. A self-published book Imperator: Italia by Erich 'B' Hartmann, presumably part of a trilogy or series, has Laelius as a second narrator charting events of the Second Punic War while he converses (or recollects) with the first narrator, Polybius, who is collecting materials for his eponymous Histories. References 3rd-century BC Romans 2nd-century BC diplomats 2nd-century BC Roman consuls Ancient Roman generals Gaius Plebeian aediles Roman governors of Hispania Roman governors of Sicily Roman Republican praetors