CINEAS, a Thessalian, the chief adviser of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. He was regarded as the most eloquent man of his age. He tried to dissuade Pyrrhus from invading Italy, and after the defeat of the Romans at Heraclea (28o B.c.) was sent to Rome to discuss terms of peace. These terms, which are said by Appian (De Rebus Samniticis, Io, II) to have included the freedom of the Greeks in Italy and the restoration to the Bruttians, Apulians and Samnites of all that had been taken from them, were rejected. Two years later Cineas was sent to renew negotiations on easier terms. The result was a cessation of hostilities, and Cineas crossed over to Sicily to prepare the ground for Pyrrhus's campaign. Nothing more is heard of him. He is said to have made an epitome of the Tactica of Aeneas, probably referred to by Cicero, who speaks of a Cineas as the author of a treatise De Re Militari.
See Plutarch, Pyrrhus, 11-21 ; Justin xviii. 2 ; Eutropius ii. 12; Cicero, Ad Fam. ix. 25.