( fl Rome, mid-1st century BC). Greek sculptor. He was one of the greatest masters of his time, though referred to only by Pliny. A contemporary of PASITELES, like him he worked in a variety of media (marble statuary, marble and/or metal vessels) and believed in the value of preliminary models, which were themselves sold at high prices. Arkesilaos was commissioned by L. Lucullus or his son to make a statue of Felicitas (Pliny: XXXV.clv–clvi), which was never completed. His most famous work was the cult statue for Caesar’s Temple of Venus Genetrix (ded. 46 BC). Hadrianic coin representations of this deity show a figure close to the late 5th century BC Fréjus Aphrodite type (see GREECE, ANCIENT, fig. 59). If these represent Arkesilaos’ cult statue, then it must have been classicizing in style. The Temple of Venus, however, was extensively rebuilt in Trajanic times, so the statue depicted may have been a 2nd-century AD replacement. Only two other works are mentioned: a group of Centaurs Carrying Nymphs in the collection of Asinius Pollio (Pliny: XXXVI.xxxiii) and a group owned by Varro of Winged Cupids Playing with a Lioness (Pliny: XXXVI.xli), the latter especially suggesting a mood less serious than that of the cult statue. This is not a problematic inconsistency since in so eclectic a time as the 1st century BC master artists must have displayed considerable stylistic versatility.

• Arkesilaos
  • Pliny: (1) Pliny the elder, §2(v): Natural History: Book XXXVI: Marble
  • Rome, ancient, §IV, 2(i): Sculpture: Republic
  • works
    • Caesar, Julius
    • Pliny: (1) Pliny the elder, §2(iv): Natural History, Book XXXV: Painting
    • Rome, §V, 2(i): Forum Julium