CAIUS, a Roman knight, who is generally considered as the inventor of satirical composition, at least of that new form which was adopted by Horace, Persius, and Juvenal. Of his personal history we can collect only a few facts. He was born 148 B.C. at Suessa, now Sessa, a city of the Aurunci, in Latium, and died at Naples at the age of forty-six, B.C. 103 (Juv. i. 20; Euseb.). He attended Scipio Africanus in the war against Numantia, B.C. 134, at an age when he could scarcely be expected to serve in arms. It was then that he acquired the friendship of the younger Scipio, and of Laelius (Vell. Pat. ii. 9). He composed thirty satires, epodes, hymns, a comedy, and a Life of Scipio the elder. His satires are frequently mentioned by ancient writers, and with great praise; but we have only a few fragments remaining. Lucilius first introduced hexameter verse, which became the usual measure of Roman satirical compositions; and made little use of the iambus or trocheus. He also excelled those who preceded him, in the sharpness of his wit and the polished smoothness of his language. Horace, however, pronounces a severe sentence on the poetry of Lucilius. He finds his verses harsh and unmusical, and compares him to a river whose waters bring down particles of gold and mud mingled together (Sat. i. 10). The fragments of Lucilius have been published by Douza, with learned notes, Leyden, 1597, and Amsterdam, 1661; again by Volpi, Padua, 1735. (See Bähr, Geschichte der Romanischen Literatur, Carlsruhe, 1832.)