Opilius, Aurelius
the freedman of an Epicutean, taught at Rome, first philosophy, then rhetoric, and. finally, grammar, and is placed by Suetonius next in order to Saevius Nicanor [NICANOR]. He gave up his school upon the condemnation of Rutilius Rufus, whom he accompanied to Smyrna, and there the two friends grew old together in the enjoyment of each other's society. He composed several learned works upon various subjects; one of those is parictilar, diidel d into nine parts, and named Musae, is referred to by A. Gellius (1.25), who quotes from it an explanation of the word Induciue, accompanied by a most foolish derivation. To another piece termed Pinax an acrostic was prefixed on his own name which he there gave as Opillius. (Sueton. de Illustr. Granmrs. 6; Lersch, Sprachpthilosophie der Alten, iii. p. 150.)
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.