Gaius Albucius Silus was an ancient Roman orator and teacher of rhetoric under emperor Augustus. He was born and died in Novaria (today Novara), but made his career in Rome. Suetonius gives a sketch of his life, while Seneca the Elder describes him as an outstanding declaimer.
In the novel Albucius (1990), Pascal Quignard invents fifty-three controversiae (fictitious lawsuits) by Albucius and alternates them with historical and fictional scenes from his life.
References
- Albucius Silus in the Oxford Classical Dictionary
- Damien Fortin, Les «fictions biographiques» contemporaines, un nouveau «sacre de l’écrivain»? (in French), paragraph 14, Acta Fabula
- John Hamilton, Philology and Music in the Work of Pascal Quignard, p. 143, Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, v. 33, issue 1, article 9
Primary sources
- Suetonius on Albucius Silus (in English)
- Introduction to the 7th book of Seneca's Controversiae (in Latin)
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