Laelia was the daughter of C. Laelius (c. 190-129 BCE) and the wife of Q. Mucius Scaevola (c. 159 – 88 BCE), with whom she had three children. We know very little else about her, reinforcing the impression that her daughter's husband, the orator L. Licinius Crassus (140-91 BCE), conveys of a sheltered but educated woman. Aristocratic matronae would typically have received early instruction at home with their brothers, but how much more education they would have acquired is uncertain. Crassus implies that Laelia had knowledge of the early dramatic poets Plautus and Naevius, or at least sounded as if she had. Although teachers were usually mothers or, in elite households, Greek tutors, Crassus cites only Laelia's father as her model. Laelius was a statesman and member of the Scipionic Circle, a group of cultured friends who gathered around Scipio Africanus Numantinus, victor in the 3rd Punic War (149-146 BCE). Renowned for his oratorical ability, Laelius earned the nickname Sapiens for his interest in Greek philosophy and literature. He was praised for the elegance of his language by Quintilian, who agreed that Laelia spoke like her father. In the passage below Crassus, one of the speakers in Cicero's dialogue on rhetoric, argues that good Latin pronunciation mirrors ancient Roman diction, the only remaining traces of which he finds in the speech of his mother-in-law, Laelia.