Gaius Servilius Ahala

This may be less historical fact and more etiological myth, invented to explain the Servilian cognomen "Ahala"/"Axilla", which means "armpit" and is probably of Etruscan origin.

[2] As related by Livy and others, Ahala served as magister equitum in 439 BC, when Cincinnatus was appointed dictator on the supposition that Spurius Maelius was styling himself a king and plotting against the state.

[3][4][5][6] This is mentioned by several later writers as an example of ancient Roman heroism, and is frequently referred to by Cicero in terms of the highest admiration;[7] but was regarded as a case of murder at the time.

[9][10] Livy passes over this, and only mentions that a bill was brought in three years afterwards, in 436 BC, by another Spurius Maelius, a tribune, for confiscating the property of Ahala, but that it failed.

[11] In 54 BC, a representation of Ahala was given on a coin of Marcus Junius Brutus, who participated in the murder of Julius Caesar, but we cannot suppose it to be anything more than an imaginary likeness.