Titus Verginius Tricostus Caeliomontanus (consul 448 BC)

The Caelian Hill, which gave its name to Caeliomontanus.

Caeliomontanus belonged to the patrician gens Verginia, which was of Etruscan origin, arriving to Rome with the Tarquins. They originally only bore the cognomen Tricostus. The first member of the family to reach the consulship was Opiter Verginius Tricostus in 502, in the early years of the Roman Republic.[2] The patrician Verginii soon separated in two branches, one living on the Esquiline Hill, the other on the Caelian Hill, thus taking the additional cognomen Esquilinus and Caeliomontanus.[3]

The Fasti Capitolini are missing between 449 and 423, so Caeliomontanus' filiation has not been preserved.[4] Friedrich Münzer and Hans Georg Gundel thought he was the son of Spurius Verginius Tricostus Caeliomontanus, consul in 456, but it is improbable that he was consul just 8 years before his son.[5] Robert Maxwell Ogilvie suggested instead Aulus Verginius, consul in 469, as his father, with a more credible 21 years gap between them.[6]

Caeliomontanus' career is completely unknown apart from his consulship. He was elected consul posterior in 448, with Lars Herminius Aquilinus as consul prior, which means the Centuriate Assembly elected Aquilinus before Caeliomontanus.[7][8][9]

Their year of office was relatively peaceful, as neither consul took sides during the Conflict of the Orders, the social struggle that opposed patricians and plebeians during the first two centuries of the Republic. Livy adds that they did not wage any military campaign.[10]