Caecilius of Calacte

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Not to be confused with Lucius Caecilius Iucundus.
Caecilius of Calacte

Caecilius of Calacte was a rhetorician and literary critic active in Rome during the reign of Augustus.[1]

The main source of information about Caecilius' life is the

Calacte, and was probably a student of Apollodorus of Pergamon.[2] Both the Suda and Hermagoras say that he taught in Rome during the reign of Augustus.[3] The Suda reports that he lived until the reign of Hadrian, more than a century after the death of Augustus; this is possibly due to confusion with the quaestor Quintus Caecilius Niger.[4] A mention of Caecilius by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who describes him as a friend in his Epistle to Pompey,[5] may have been written as early as 30 BC and suggests that he may already have been an established critic by then.[3]

He apparently wrote works of both history and literary criticism,[6] but only a few fragments of his writings are extant.[2] Athenaeus, the main source of information about Caecilius' historical works, reports that he wrote a history of the Servile Wars (slave revolts) in Sicily, and refers to a work in which Caecilius mentioned the Sicilian tyrant Agathocles.[7] He also apparently wrote about the literary merits of historians, praising Thucydides but criticising Timaeus and Theopompus.[8]

In his literary criticism, Caecilius was one of the first proponents of

Ten Attic Orators, and individual works on the speeches of Demosthenes, Antiphon, and Lysias.[10]

Longinus' treatise On the Sublime was written in response to a work by Caecilius on the same topic.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b Roberts 1897, p. 302.
  2. ^ a b c Weißenberger 2006.
  3. ^ a b O'Sullivan 2005, p. 34.
  4. ^ Roberts 1897, pp. 302–3.
  5. ^ Roberts 1900, p. 439.
  6. ^ Roberts 1897, p. 303.
  7. ^ Roberts 1897, pp. 303–4.
  8. ^ O'Sullivan 2005, pp. 36–37.
  9. ^ a b Roberts 1897, p. 304.
  10. ^ a b Roberts 1897, p. 305.
  11. ^ O'Sullivan 2005, p. 36.

Works cited

  • O'Sullivan, Neil (2005). "Caecilius, 'Canons', and the Origins of Atticism". In Dominik, William J. (ed.). Roman Eloquence: Rhetoric in Art and Society. London: Routledge.
    ISBN 0-203-43275-4
    .
  • Roberts, W. Rhys (1897). "Caecilius of Calacte". American Journal of Philology. 18 (3): 302–312.
    JSTOR 287826
    .
  • Roberts, W. Rhys (1900). "The Literary Circle of Dionysius of Halicarnassus". The Classical Review. 14 (9): 439–442.
    S2CID 162999601
    .
  • Weißenberger, Michael (2006). "Caecilius [III 5]". Brill's New Pauly.
    doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e222580
    .
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