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_, 1), considers him
inferior to Terence in style and Latinity (_Ad Att._ 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 _Plocium_ (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. Fragments in
Ribbeck, _Scaenicae Romanorum Poesis Fragmenta_ (1898); see also W.S.
Teuffel, _Caecilius Statius_, &c. (1858); Mommsen, _Hist. of Rome_ (Eng.
tr.), bk. iii. ch. 14; F. Skutsch in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopaedie_
(1897).

[v.04 p.0934]

CAEC[=I]NA, the name of a distinguished Etruscan family of Volaterrae.
Graves have been discovered belonging to the family, whose name is still
preserved in the river and hamlet of Cecina.

AULUS CAECINA, son of Aulus Caecina who was defended by Cicero (69 B.C.) in
a speech still extant, took the side of Pompey in the civil wars, and
published a violent tirade against Caesar, for which he was banished. He
recanted in a work called _Querelae_, and by the intercession of his
friends, above all, of Cicero, obtained pardon from Caesar. Caecina was
regarded as an important authority on the Etruscan system of divination
(_Etrusca Disciplina_), which he endeavoured to place on a scientific
footing by harmonizing its theories with the doctrines of the Stoics.
Considerable fragments of his work (dealing with lightning) are to be found
in Seneca (_Naturales Quaestiones_, ii. 31-49). Caecina was on intimate
terms with Cicero, who speaks of him as a gifted and eloquent man and was
no doubt considerably indebted to him in his own treatise _De Divinatione_.
Some of their correspondence is preserved in Cicero's letters (_Ad Fam._
vi. 5-8; see also ix. and xiii. 66).

AULUS CAECINA ALIENUS, Roman general, was quaestor of Baetica in Spain
(A.D.