What is "maelia"

The gens Maelia was a plebeian family at Rome. Members of this gens are mentioned in the time of the early Republic, from just after the decemvirs down to the Samnite Wars. The Maelii belonged to the equestrian order, and were among the wealthiest of the plebeians. The most famous of the Maelii was probably Spurius Maelius, a wealthy merchant who purchased grain from the Etruscans during a famine in 440 BC, and sold it to the poor at a nominal price. The following year, the patricians accused him of conspiring to make himself king, and when he resisted arrest he was slain by the magister equitum, Gaius Servilius Ahala.