Caecilius of Calacte

{{short description|Greek critic and rhetorician during the reign of Augustus}}

{{distinguish|Lucius Caecilius Iucundus}}

File:Caecilius of Calacte.jpg

Caecilius of Calacte was a rhetorician and literary critic active in Rome during the reign of Augustus.{{sfn|Roberts|1897|p=302}}

The main source of information about Caecilius' life is the Suda, which says that he was from Sicily, originally called Archagathus, possibly of slave origins, and Jewish.{{sfn|Roberts|1897|p=302}} He was born about 50 BC in Calacte, and was probably a student of Apollodorus of Pergamon.{{sfn|Weißenberger|2006}} Both the Suda and Hermagoras say that he taught in Rome during the reign of Augustus.{{sfn|O'Sullivan|2005|p=34}} 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.{{sfn|Roberts|1897|pp=302–3}} A mention of Caecilius by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who describes him as a friend in his Epistle to Pompey,{{sfn|Roberts|1900|p=439}} may have been written as early as 30 BC and suggests that he may already have been an established critic by then.{{sfn|O'Sullivan|2005|p=34}}

He apparently wrote works of both history and literary criticism,{{sfn|Roberts|1897|p=303}} but only a few fragments of his writings are extant.{{sfn|Weißenberger|2006}} 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.{{sfn|Roberts|1897|pp=303–4}} He also apparently wrote about the literary merits of historians, praising Thucydides but criticising Timaeus and Theopompus.{{sfn|O'Sullivan|2005|pp=36–37}}

In his literary criticism, Caecilius was one of the first proponents of Atticism, alongside his friend Dionysius of Halicarnassus.{{sfn|Weißenberger|2006}} He wrote a treatise Against the Phrygians which apparently criticised the Asiatic style of rhetoric, producing a glossary of Attic phrases,{{sfn|Roberts|1897|p=304}} and a treatise on the difference between the Attic and Asiatic styles of rhetoric.{{sfn|Roberts|1897|p=305}} He wrote an Art of Rhetoric and a work on rhetorical figures, which is quoted by Quintilian.{{sfn|Roberts|1897|p=304}} He also wrote a treatise on the Ten Attic Orators, and individual works on the speeches of Demosthenes, Antiphon, and Lysias.{{sfn|Roberts|1897|p=305}}

Longinus' treatise On the Sublime was written in response to a work by Caecilius on the same topic.{{sfn|O'Sullivan|2005|p=36}}