Gaius Acilius – earliest Roman annalist

Acilius, Gaius Roman senator of plebeian descent and historian, who work for three Greek scholars, Carneades, Diogenes, and Critolaus in the senate in 155 BC. At that session he acted as interpreter.

He wrote a history of Rome. The work extended from pre-history down to the writer’s own time, 184 BC. Acilius takes for granted that Rome was a Greek colony. He wrote in Greek in order to parade Roman achievement before the Greek world.

His work was reproduced in Latin by Claudius Quadrigarius, who would then have incorporated it in his annalistic form.
Gaius Acilius – earliest Roman annalist