A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

CAECINA. CAECINA. 529
says Cicero (De Optim. Gen. Die. i.), although in fended in a law-suit, B. c. 69. The argument of
other passages he censures his latinity as impure. this oration, which is of a purely legal nature,
(Ad Att. vii. 3, Brut. c. 74.) The dictum of the cannot be understood without a knowledge of the
fashionable critics of the Augustan age is embodied Roman interdict. It is discussed at length by
by Horace in the line (Ep. ii. 1. 59), " Vincere Keller in the second book of his " Semestrium ad
Caecilius gravitate, Terentius arte." Velleius M. Tullium Ciceronem Libri VI." Turici, 1843.
declares (ii. 17), that the " charms of Latin wit He was probably the father of the following, and
were brilliantly displayed by Caecilius, Terentius, not the same person, as is usually supposed.
and Afranius." " We are most lame in comedy, (Comp. Cic. ad Fanm. vi. 9; Orelli, Onom. 7dull. s. v.)
although the ancients extol Caecilius," is the 2. A. CAECINA, son of the preceding, published
testimony of Quintilian (x. 1. ~ 99), while Vulca- a libellous work against Caesar, and was in consetius Sedigitus in an epigram preserved in the quence compelled to go into exile after the battle of
Noctes Atticae (xv. 24) pronounces Caecilius first Pharsalia, B. c. 48. In order to obtain Caesar's
among the nine comic poets there enumerated, the pardon, he wrote another work entitled Querelae,
second place being assigned to Plautus, and the which he sent to Cicero for revision. In the colsixth to Terence. lection of Cicero's letters there is rather a long one
This popularity, however, was not acquired at from Caecina to Cicero, and three of Cicero's to
once, for the speaker of the prologue to the Hecyra, Caecina. (Suet. Caes. 75; Cic. ad Fam. vi. 5-8.)
while he apologises for reproducing a piece which In 47 Caecina was in Asia, and was recommended
had already twice failed, reminds the audience that by Cicero to the proconsul P. Servilius, the goalthough the works of Caecilius were now listened vernor of the province (ad Fam. xiii. 66): from
to with pleasure, several had at first been driven thence he crossed over to Sicily, and was again reoff the stage, while others had with difficulty kept commended by Cicero to Furfanius, the governor of
their ground. The whole of the forty plays alluded Sicily. (Ad. Fam. vi. 9.) From Sicily he went into
to above, as far as we can gather from their titles, Africa, and, upon the defeat of the Pompeians there
belong to the class of Palliatae, that is, were free in the same year, B. c. 46, surrendered to Caesar,
translations or adaptations of the works of Greek who spared his life. (Hirt. Bell. Afr. 89.)
writers of the new comedy. There is a curious Caecina was the author of a work on the "Etruschapter in Aulus Gellius (ii. 23), where a compari- ca Disciplina," which is referred to by Pliny as one
son is instituted between certain passages in the of his authorities for his second book; and it is proPlocium of Caecilius and the corresponding por- bably from this work that Seneca quotes (Quaest.
tions of the drama by Menander, from which it Nat. ii. 39) some remarks of Caecina upon the difwas derived. We here gain some knowledge of ferent kinds of lightning. Cicero tells us (ad Fam.
the manner in which these transfusions were per- vi. 6. ~ 3), that Caecina was trained by his father
formed, and we feel strongly impressed with the in the knowledge of the Etruscans, and speaks of
poorness, flatness, and vapid heaviness of the Latin him otherwise as a man of talent, and possessed of
imitation when placed in juxtaposition with the oratorical powers. Seneca (Quaest. Nat. ii. 56)
sparkling brilliancy of the rich and racy original. says, that he would have had some reputation in
To adopt the quaint simile of the grammarian, they eloquence if he had not been thrown into the shade
resemble each other in the same degree as the by Cicero. This must be the same Caecina whose
bright and precious armour of Glaucus resembled work on the Etruscan Discipline is quoted in
the dull and paltry harness of Diomede. [W. R.] the Veronese scholia on the Aeneid (x. 198, 'ed.
CAECINA, the name of an Etruscan family of Mai).
Volaterrae, one of the ancient cities of Etruria. It 3. CAECINA of Volaterrae, a friend of Octavianus,
seems either to have derived its name from, or sent by the latter to Cicero in B. c. 44. (Cic. ad
given it to, the river Caecina, which flows by the Ait. xvi. 8.) Cicero speaks of him as " Caecinam
town. Persons of this name are first mentioned in quendam Volaterranum," which would seem to
the century before Christ, and they are expressly shew that he could not have been the same as the
said to have been natives of Volaterrae. Under preceding, nor even his son, with whom also Cicero
the empire the name is of frequent occurrence, and was well acquainted. (Cic. ad Fam. vi. 5.) This
it is probable that all these Caecinae were of Etrus- Caecina was sent by Octavianus with proposals to
can origin. As late as the reign of Honorius, we Antony in 41. (Appian, B. C. v. 60.)
read of the poet Decius Albinus Caecina [see be- 4. A. CAECINA SEVERUS, a distinguished soldier
low], residing at his villa in the neighbourhood of and general in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius,
Volaterrae; and there is, or was lately, a family had served forty campaigns by the year A. D. 15,
of this name at the modern Volterra, which Italian and lived several years afterwards. (Tac. Ann. i.
antiquaries would make out to be descended from 64, iii. 33.) He was governor of Moesia in A. D. 6,
the ancient Caecinae. There has been discovered when the formidable insurrection under the two
in the neighbourhood of Volterra the family tomb Batos broke out in the neighbcuring provinces of
of the Caecinae, from which we learn that Ceicna Dalmatia and Pannonia. [BATO.] He immediately
was the Etruscan form of the name. In this tomb marched against the Breucians in Pannonia, whom
there was found a beautiful sarcophagus, now in he defeated after a hard-fought battle, in which
the Museum of Paris. The family was di- many of his troops fell, but was recalled almost imvided into several branches, and we accordingly mediately afterwards to his own province by the
find on the funeral urns the cognomens Caspu and ravages of the Dacians and Sarmatians. In the
and Tlapuni: in Latin inscriptions we also meet following year, he gained another victory over the
with the surnames Quadralus and Placidus; and insurgents, who had attacked him while on his
various others occur below. (Miuller, Etrusker, vol. march from Moesia to join Germanicus in Pannoi. p. 416, &c.) The most important persons of nia. (Dion Cass. lv. 29, 30, 32; Vell. Pat. ii. 112.)
this name are: In A. D. 14, Caecina had the command, as legate
1. A. CAECINA, of Volaterrae, whom Cicero de- of Germanicus, of the Roman army in Lower Ger2 i