Caeci'na
2. A.
Caecina, son of
the preceding.
Cicero tells us (
ad Fam. 6.6.3), that Caecina was trained by his father in the knowledge of the Etruscans, and speaks of him otherwise as a man of talent, and possessed of oratorical powers. Seneca (
Quaest. Nat. 2.56) says, that he would have had some reputation in eloquence if he had not been thrown into the shade by Cicero.
In 47 Caecina was in Asia, and was recommended by Cicero to the proconsul P. Servilius, the governor of the province (
ad Fam. 13.66): from thence he crossed over to Sicily, and was again recommended by Cicero to Furfanius, the governor of Sicily. (
Ad. Fam. 6.9.) From Sicily he went into Africa, and, upon the defeat of the Pompeians there in the same year, B. C. 46, surrendered to Caesar, who spared his life. (Hirt.
Bell. Afr. 89.)
Works
Libellous work against Caesar
Caecina published a libellous work against Caesar, and was in consequence compelled to go into exile after the battle of Pharsalia, B. C. 48.
In order to obtain Caesar's pardon, he wrote another work entitled
Querelae, which he sent to Cicero for revision.
Letters
In the collection of Cicero's letters there is rather a long one from Caecina to Cicero, and three of Cicero's to Caecina. (
Suet. Jul. 75;
Cic. Fam. 6.5-
8.)
Caecina was the author of a work on the
Etrusca Disciplina, which is referred to by Pliny as one of his authorities for his second book; and it is probably from this work that Seneca quotes
Quaest. Nat. 2.39) some remarks of Caecina upon the different kinds of lightning.
This must be the same Caecina whose work on the Etruscan Discipline is quoted in the Veronese scholia on the Aeneid (10.198, ed. Mai).
