Statius Caecilius, also known as Caecilius Statius (; c. 220 BC – c. 166 BC), was a Celtic Roman comic poet.

Life and work

A contemporary and intimate friend of

Ennius Quintus Ennius (; ) was a writer and poet who lived during the Roman Republic. He is often considered the father of Roman poetry. He was born in the small town of Rudiae, located near modern Lecce (ancient ''Calabria'', today Salento), a town ...

, according to tradition he was born in the territory of the Celtic Insubrian

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

s, probably in

Mediolanum Mediolanum, the ancient city where Milan now stands, was originally an Insubres, Insubrian city, but afterwards became an important Ancient Rome, Roman city in Northern Italy. The city was settled by a Celts, Celtic tribe belonging to the Ins ...

, and was probably taken as a prisoner to Rome (c. 200), during the Roman-Gallic wars. Originally a slave, he assumed the name of Caecilius from his patron, probably one of the Metelli. However, according to one source he was free-born of Samnite stock whose family had settled in Cisalpine Gaul following the

Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of Punic Wars, three wars fought between Ancient Carthage, Carthage and Roman Republic, Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For ...

. In this case he would have been a native speaker of a language close to Latin, rather than

Gaulish Gaulish is an extinct Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, ...

Insubrian. There he came to the attention of Marcus Caecilius Denter, the Legatus Legionibus Praepositus in Cisalpine Gaul in 200 BC who introduced him in Rome. He supported himself by adapting Greek plays for the Roman stage from the

New Comedy Ancient Greek comedy () was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece; the others being tragedy and the satyr play. Greek comedy was distinguished from tragedy by its happy endings and use of comically ...

writers, especially

Menander Menander (; ; c. 342/341 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek scriptwriter and the best-known representative of Athenian Ancient Greek comedy, New Comedy. He wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times. His record at the Cit ...

, a genre called Comoedia Palliata. If the statement in the life of

Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a playwright during the Roman Republic. He was the author of six Roman comedy, comedies based on Greek comedy, Greek originals by Menander or Apollodorus of Carystus. A ...

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...

is correct and the reading sound, Caecilius's judgment was so esteemed that he was ordered to hear Terence's ''Andria'' (exhibited 166 BC) read and to pronounce an opinion upon it. After several failures, Caecilius gained a high reputation. Volcatius Sedigitus, the dramatic critic, places him first amongst the comic poets;

Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Virgil and Cicero). He is sometimes call ...

credits him with

pathos Pathos appeals to the emotions and ideals of the audience and elicits feelings that already reside in them. ''Pathos'' is a term most often used in rhetoric (in which it is considered one of the three modes of persuasion, alongside ethos and ...

and skill in the construction of his plots;

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

(''Epistles'', ii. I. 59) contrasts his dignity with the art of Terence.

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician born in Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quin ...

(''Inst. Orat.'', x. I. 99) speaks somewhat disparagingly of him, and

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

, although he admits with some hesitation that Caecilius may have been the chief of the comic poets (''De Optimo Genere Oratorum'', I), considers him inferior to Terence in style and Latinity (''Ad Atticum'' vii. 3), as was only natural, considering his foreign extraction. The fact that his plays could be referred to by name alone without any indication of the author (Cicero, ''De Finibus'', ii. 7) is sufficient proof of their widespread popularity. Caecilius holds a place between

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...

and Terence in his treatment of the Greek originals; he did not, like Plautus, confound things Greek and Roman, nor, like Terence, eliminate everything that could not be romanized. The fragments of his plays are chiefly preserved in

Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, ...

, who cites several passages from ''Plocium'' (''The Necklace'') together with the original Greek of Menander, affording the only opportunity, apart from Plautus' '' Bacchides'', to make a substantial comparison between a Roman comedy and its Greek model. Caecilius' version, diffuse and by no means close as a translation, does not reproduce the spirit of the original. His comedies "apparently included serious thoughts on moral and social issues, mostly related to the immediate family, the corresponding relationships, and the impact of one’s personal affairs on one’s position in society."

Surviving titles and fragments

Forty-two titles are known, about half based on Menander, and half on other Greek authors. Approximately 280 fragmentary verses survive. ''Plocium'' is the best preserved (45 verses). In addition to that, a large fragment of ''Obolostates'' was discovered not long ago among the ''papyri'' of

Herculaneum Herculaneum is an ancient Rome, ancient Roman town located in the modern-day ''comune'' of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under a massive pyroclastic flow in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Like the nearby city of ...

; it is as yet unedited, but is estimated to contain fragments of 400-500 lines. Some preliminary information was published by the researcher, Knut Kleve, in 1996.D. Sider. The Books of the Villa of the Papyri. In: M. Zarmakoupi, ed., The Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, 2010, p. 126.

References

External links

Google Books copy
of Otto Ribbeck's Latin edition of the fragments (''Scaenicae Romanorum Poesis Fragmenta'', 3rd ed., 1898, vol. 2, pp. 40ff.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Caecilius, Statius 220s BC births 160s BC deaths Old Latin-language writers 2nd-century BC writers in Latin 3rd-century BC Romans 2nd-century BC Romans Writers from Milan Republican era slaves and freedmen Ancient Roman comic dramatists Caecilii Year of birth unknown

Life and work

Surviving titles and fragments

See also

References

Further reading

External links