AULUS CAECINA

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).