Caelius

Caelius is a Latin masculine nomen, best known as the name of the ancient Roman gens Caelia. In Roman onomastics the gens name appears in inscriptions and literary texts, signaling membership in the Caelia family and often accompanying a personal name (praenomen) and a further cognomen. The Caelia gens is attested from the Republic period into the Imperial era, and its members took part in political, military, and civic life to varying degrees. Etymology is not unequivocally established, but the name is generally treated as part of Rome’s traditional patrician or plebeian nomenclature. The feminine form of the gens name is Caelia, and the plural form Caelii can occur in inscriptions when referring to members of the family collectively.

Caelius also refers to a notable topographical feature in Rome. Collis Caelius, the Caelian Hill, is one of the city’s traditional Seven Hills. The hill’s name is commonly linked to the Caelia gens, reflecting a common pattern by which topographic places were associated with prominent families or landowners of the area. In historical and epigraphic contexts, the Caelius name thus surfaces both in reference to people and in place-names tied to Rome’s urban landscape.

In modern scholarship, Caelius is encountered primarily in studies of Roman prosopography, Latin epigraphy, and toponymy. The term serves to identify members of the Caelia gens and toponymic references to the Caelian Hill, rather than as a modern surname or title with independent contemporary usage.