Silius Cayo Albucio was a Roman orator and admirer of Cicero, born in Novara, in the reign of Augustus.
He held the position of mayor in his hometown, until a revolution threw him out of court and was delivered to the outrages of the populace, as a result of which he moved to Rome, where he held a distinguished post in the forum, thanks to his eloquence and talent. He joined the literary circle of Lucio Munacio Planca, a former general of Caesar, until he established a school of rhetoric, devoting himself entirely to it and abandoning forensic tasks.
St. Jerome quotes it, Quintilianus speaks of Albucio in flattering terms, Suetonius deals with him in his Treaty of celebrated orators, and Seneca the Elder collected fragments of his speeches which are sufficient to give an idea of the oratory style of the distinguished rhetorician. In old age and afflicted by an abscess in his throat, he returned to Novara, where, after exposing his subjects with great serenity to the motives that led him to kill himself, he committed suicide by letting himself die of hunger.
He left a Rhetoric Treaty, which deserved the praise of his contemporaries. Bibliography
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