Caecilius Statius

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Caecilius Statius (* in the last decades of the 3rd century BC; † 168 BC ) was a Roman comedy poet.

Life

Only a few sources give information about the life of Caecilius. Most of it can be found in the Chronicle of Eusebius of Caesarea, translated and expanded by Jerome (Abr. 1838, 179 BC). Accordingly, he was a Celt from the tribe of the Insubrians , possibly from Mediolanum . He was a preferred contubernalis (= house and table friend) of the poet Quintus Ennius , died a year after him (168 BC) and was buried near him on the Ianiculum .

Aulus Gellius narrates that he was a slave for a time in his life and that his (frequently occurring) name as the slave Statius became his cognomen . Possibly he got - around 230 BC. Born as a slave to Rome as a result of a Roman insubrian campaign (223/222 or 200-194) and was released by a Caecilier.

In Rome he worked as an extremely successful comedy poet. But he was not always sure of success, as Terence , with whom he had a special relationship, impressively describes in the 2nd prologue of his comedy Hecyra .

Works

42 titles of Caecilius' comedies are known, Latin, but mainly Greek names and terms ( Chrysion a Greek woman's name, Syracusii , gamos Greek marriage, meretrix Latin prostitute, etc.); However, these are only connected with a few fragments and verses (a total of 177 fragments with 294 verses), so that no meaningful picture of the works can be obtained.

The only exception is the piece of plocium (the collar), which is known to us from Aulus Gellius. Gellius gives us the basics of the plot (a young girl is raped by a stranger and pregnant. The young man she is married to turns out to be this rapist), which Caecilius took over from Menander . Compared to de Menander's work, Caecilius' play appears cold, lifeless and bound to a superficial merriment. To substantiate this, he quotes two longer passages in the original Greek and in the Caecilius version with the popular theme of the husband's complaint about his rich, unpleasant wife.

Sources / role models

Menander, the respected poet of the New Comedy in Athens, was the great role model of Caecilius, as the titles of the comedies show. In addition, Caecilius drew from the works of Philemon and Poseidippus . The New Comedy takes place in the bourgeois sphere of the polis and has a fictional, self-contained plot. Caecilius also draws on the poets of the “medium” comedy, Antiphanes and Alexis.

Lore

Cicero passed down 15 fragments from the Synephebi , Nonius 106 fragments; other witnesses are Marcus Verrius Flaccus , Aulus Gellius, Flavius ​​Sosipater Charisius , Diomedes , Aelius Donatus , Servius , Priscian from Caesarea, Isidore from Seville and others. a.

Continue to work

Volcacius Sedigitus held Caecilius at the end of the 2nd century BC. In his canon of ten Roman comedians (in Gellius 15:24) for the best comedy poet ( Caecilio palmam Statio mimico do ) because of the coarseness and amusement of his comedy. Varro values ​​Caecilius' ability to arouse emotions and passions and to express the tragic pathos in the Latin language as Menander did in his plays in the speeches of Charisios, Polemon, Demeas and others. a. had demonstrated. Cicero rebukes Caecilius' Latin (Brutus 258), denies him authority in questions of the Latin language (Atticus 7,3,10), which points to his ancient language and the peculiarities in word form and word usage. Cicero does not completely rule out the fact that Caecilius is still a great comedian ( De optimo genere oratorum 2). With Horace there is the widespread opinion that Caecilius is the most expressive power of the word ( gravitas ) (Epistle 2,1,59), he can be counted among the word creators with Plautus ( Ars poetica 45-55). Both statements reveal why Caecilius' comedies could be forgotten: “The Latin literary language and its ideals of style have developed differently. Urbanity, purity and delicacy replaced abundance, power and color, especially in comedy ”(Michael von Albrecht).

The polished Latin sentences from Caecilius' comedies are timeless: “Live as you can, since you cannot as you want” ( vivas ut potis, quando non quis ut velis , Ribbek 142); “Just wool; you will accomplish it ”( fac velis, perficies , Ribbek 290); “Man is a god to man if he knows his duty” ( homo homini deus est, si suum officium sciat , Ribbek 264). Later on, Caecilius was less valued and less read.

meaning

The Latin comedy in Greek garb, the palliata had Gnaeus Naevius already founded and Plautus. Caecilius made the comedy more palpable, immediately understandable and even more vulgar. "Caecilius combines skillful direction and sententious formulation of thoughts with a rather coarse character drawing and colorful language" (Albrecht). His work demonstrates an understanding of art and theoretical ideas: the rules of the Fabula palliata that he calls for are the approximation of the plot of the original, the prohibition of contamination and the requirement that a piece must be new. With this Caecilius prepared the work of Terence.

Text output

  • Comicorum Romanorum praeter Plautum et Terentium Fragmenta , ed. Otto Ribbeck , 3rd edition, Leipzig 1898 (reprint 1962)
  • Eric Herbert Warmington: Remains of Old Latin , Vol. 1, London 1935, pp. 467 ff.
  • Alfonso Traina: Comoedia . Padova 1960, p. 87 ff. (Selection with commentary)

literature

  • Michael von Albrecht : History of Roman literature from Andronicus to Boethius and its continued effect . Volume 1. 3rd, improved and expanded edition. De Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-026525-5 , pp. 177-183
  • Jürgen Blänsdorf : Caecilius Statius. In: Werner Suerbaum (Ed.): The archaic literature. From the beginnings to Sulla's death (= Handbook of Ancient Latin Literature , Volume 1). CH Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-48134-5 , pp. 229-231
  • F. Skutsch: Caecilius (25) , In: RE .
  • Manfred Fuhrmann (ed.): Roman literature . Frankfurt 1974

Remarks

  1. ^ Karl Ernst Georges : Latin-German concise dictionary
  2. ^ Aulus Gellius: Noctes Atticae , Book IV, 20, 13
  3. ^ Jürgen Blänsdorf: Caecilius Statius. In: Werner Suerbaum (Ed.): The archaic literature. From the beginning to Sulla's death , p. 229
  4. ↑ Sueton 'Bieographie Terence, II
  5. ^ Jürgen Blänsdorf: Caecilius Statius. In: Werner Suerbaum (Ed.): The archaic literature. From the beginning to Sulla's death , p. 230
  6. ^ Aulus Gellius: Noctes Atticae Book II, 23
  7. ↑ Michael von Albrecht: History of Roman literature from Andronicus to Boethius and its continued work . Volume 1. 3., p. 178
personal data
SURNAME Caecilius Statius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Statius, Caecilius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman comedy poet
DATE OF BIRTH around 220 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 168 BC Chr.