Caecilius Statius

For the personal name, see Statius (praenomen). For the poet, see Publius Papinius Statius.

Caecilius Statius, or Statius Caecilius Born 220 BC Died 168 or 166 BC was a Roman comic (poet).

A contemporary and intimate friend of Ennius, he was born in the territory of the Insubrian Gauls, and was probably taken as a prisoner to Rome (c. 200), during the great Gallic war. Originally a slave, he assumed the name of Caecilius from his patron, probably one of the Metelli. He supported himself by adapting Greek plays for the Roman stage from the New Comedy writers, especially Menander, a genre called Palliata Comoedia. If the statement in the life of Terence by Suetonius 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 Caeciius gained a high reputation. Volcacius Sedigitus, the dramatic critic, places him first amongst the comic poets; Varro credits him with pathos and skill in the construction of his plots; Horace (Epistles, ii. I. 59) contrasts his dignity with the art of Terence. Quintilian (Inst. Orat., x. I. 99) speaks somewhat disparagingly of him, and Cicero, 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 Alt. 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 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, who cites several passages from the Ploczum (necklace) together with the original Greek of Menander. The translation which is diffuse and by no means close, fails to reproduce the spirit of the original.

In his Laelius de Amicitia (On Friendship), Cicero refers to Caecilius Status's comedy Epicleros (The Heiress) and quotes two lines: “Of an old fool one never made such sport as you have made of me this very day;” (Cicero,De Amicitia, XXVI).^[1] This fragment is one of only a few known from this comedy by Caecilius Statius.

References

1. ^ Online Library of Liberty - Titles

• Hammond, N.G.L. & Scullard, H.H. (Eds.) (1970). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (p. 187). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-869117-3.
• Otto Ribbeck, Scaenicae Romanorum Poesis Fragmenta (1898)
• Wilhelm Siegmund Teuffel, Caecilius Statius, &c. (1858)
• Theodor Mommsen, History of Rome (Eng. tr.), bk. iii. ch. 14
• Franz Skutsch in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie (1897).

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica Statius Caecilius