Arcesilaus
4. A sculptor in the first century B. C., who, according to Pliny, was held in high esteem at Rome, was especially celebrated by M. Varro, and was intimate with L. Lentulus. Among his works were a statue of Venus Genetrix in the forum of Caesar, and a marble lioness surrounded by winged Cupids, who were sporting with her. Of the latter work the mosaics in the Mus. Borb. 7.61, and the Mus. Capit. 4.19, are supposed to be copies. There were some statues by him of centaurs carrying nymphs, in the collection of Asinius Pollio. He received a talent from Octavins, a Roman knight, for the model of a bowl (craterer), and was engaged by Lucullus to make a statue of Felicitas for 60 sestertia; but the deaths both of the artist and of his patron prevented the completion of the work. (Plin. Nat. 35.45, 36.4. §§ 10, 13: the reading Archesitae, in § 10, ought, almost undoubtedly, to be Arcesilae or Arcesilai.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.