Arcesilaus () was a sculptor in the first century B.C, who, according to
Pliny, was held in high esteem at Rome, was especially celebrated by
Marcus Terentius Varro
Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Virgil and Cicero). He is sometimes call ...
, and was intimate with
Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus.
Among his works were a statue of
Venus Genetrix in the forum of
Caesar, and a marble lioness surrounded by winged
Cupids, who were sporting with her. Of the latter work the mosaics in the Mus. Borb. 7.61, and the Mus. Capit. 4.19, are supposed to be copies. There were some statues by him of centaurs carrying nymphs, in the collection of
Gaius Asinius Pollio.
Arcesilaus received a talent from Octavius, a Roman knight, for the model of a bowl (''crater''), and was engaged by
Lucullus
Lucius Licinius Lucullus (; 118–57/56 BC) was a Ancient Romans, Roman List of Roman generals, general and Politician, statesman, closely connected with Lucius Cornelius Sulla. In culmination of over 20 years of almost continuous military and ...
to make a statue of
Felicitas for 60 sestertii; but the deaths both of the artist and of his patron prevented the completion of the work.
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...
, '' Natural History'
35.(45).155
: the reading "Archesitae", in §33, ought, almost undoubtedly, to be Arcesilae or Arcesilai
Notes
Ancient Roman artists
{{AncientGreece-bio-stub