Aufidius Bassus

Last updated

Aufidius Bassus was a renowned Roman historian [1] and orator who lived in the reign of Augustus and Tiberius. [2]

Bassus was a man much admired in Rome [3] for his eloquence. [4] He drew up an account of the Roman wars in Germany. [2] Uncertainty in his health perhaps prevented him from holding a public office. [4] He suddenly died of illness leaving his works unfinished. [3]

His work, which probably began with the Roman civil wars or the death of Julius Caesar up to the end of the Sejanus, or perhaps Tiberius, [1] [3] was continued in thirty-one books by Pliny the Elder. [2] [5] Pliny the Elder carried it down at least as far as the end of Nero's reign. Bassus' other historical work was a Bellum Germanicum, which was published before his Histories. [6]

Seneca the Elder speaks highly of Bassus as a historian; however, the fragments preserved in that writer's Suasoriae (vi. 23) relating to the death of Cicero are characterized by an affected style. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agrippina the Younger</span> Roman empress

Julia Agrippina, also referred to as Agrippina the Younger, was Roman empress from AD 49 to 54, the fourth wife and niece of emperor Claudius, and the mother of Nero.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claudius</span> Roman emperor from AD 41 to 54

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor at Lugdunum in Roman Gaul, where his father was stationed as a military legate. He was the first Roman emperor to be born outside Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Germanicus</span> Roman general

Germanicus Julius Caesar was an ancient Roman general and politician most famously known for his campaigns in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the patrician gens Claudia. The agnomen Germanicus was added to his full name in 9 BC when it was posthumously awarded to his father in honor of his victories in Germania. In AD 4 he was adopted by his paternal uncle Tiberius, himself the stepson and heir of Germanicus' great-uncle Augustus; ten years later, Tiberius succeeded Augustus as Roman emperor. As a result of his adoption, Germanicus became an official member of the gens Julia, another prominent family, to which he was related on his mother's side. His connection to the Julii Caesares was further consolidated through a marriage between him and Agrippina the Elder, a granddaughter of Augustus. He was also the father of Caligula, the maternal grandfather of Nero, and the older brother of Claudius.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julio-Claudian dynasty</span> Roman imperial dynasty

The Julio-Claudian dynasty comprised the first five Roman emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nero</span> 5th Roman emperor from AD 54 to 68

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his death in AD 68.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiberius</span> Roman emperor from AD 14 to 37

Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Claudius Nero and his wife, Livia Drusilla. In 38 BC, Tiberius' mother divorced his father and married Augustus. Following the untimely deaths of Augustus' two grandsons and adopted heirs, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, Tiberius was designated Augustus' successor. Prior to this, Tiberius had proved himself an able diplomat, and one of the most successful Roman generals: his conquests of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Raetia, and (temporarily) parts of Germania laid the foundations for the empire's northern frontier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">30s</span> Fourth decade of the first century AD

The 30s decade ran from January 1, AD 30, to December 31, AD 39.

Gaius Plinius Secundus, called Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, natural philosopher, naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia, a comprehensive thirty-seven-volume work covering a vast array of topics on human knowledge and the natural world, which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. He spent most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaius Caesar</span> Grandson and heir of Roman emperor Augustus

Gaius Caesar was a grandson and heir to the throne of Roman emperor Augustus, alongside his younger brother Lucius Caesar. Although he was born to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia, Augustus' only daughter, Gaius and Lucius were raised by their grandfather as his adopted sons and joint-heirs. He experienced an accelerated political career befitting a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, with the Roman Senate allowing him to advance his career without first holding a quaestorship or praetorship, offices that ordinary senators were required to hold as part of the cursus honorum.

The gens Gavia, or occasionally Gabia, was a Roman family of plebeian descent. It first appears in history during the first century BC, but none of its members obtained any of the curule magistracies until imperial times. The Gavi Arch at Verona was built in honor of one of the Gavii.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Julia was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Gaius Julius Iulus in 489 BC. The gens is perhaps best known, however, for Gaius Julius Caesar, the dictator and grand uncle of the emperor Augustus, through whom the name was passed to the so-called Julio-Claudian dynasty of the first century AD. The nomen Julius became very common in imperial times, as the descendants of persons enrolled as citizens under the early emperors began to make their mark in history.

<i>Annals</i> (Tacitus) History of the Roman Empire by the Roman historian and senator Publius Cornelius Tacitus

The Annals by Roman historian and senator Tacitus is a history of the Roman Empire from the reign of Tiberius to that of Nero, the years AD 14–68. The Annals are an important source for modern understanding of the history of the Roman Empire during the 1st century AD. Tacitus' final work, modern historians generally consider it his magnum opus which historian Ronald Mellor says represents the "pinnacle of Roman historical writing".

Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus or Gallio was a Roman senator and brother of the famous writer Seneca. He is best known for dismissing an accusation brought against Paul the Apostle in Corinth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tacitus</span> Roman historian and senator (c. 56 – c. 120)

Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus, was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars.

The gens Catia was a plebeian family at Rome from the time of the Second Punic War to the third century AD. The gens achieved little importance during the Republic, but held several consulships in imperial times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcus Servilius Nonianus</span> Roman historian and senator (died 59 AD)

Marcus Servilius Nonianus was a Roman senator, best known as a historian. He was ordinary consul in 35 as the colleague of Gaius Cestius Gallus. Tacitus described Servilius Nonianus as a man of great eloquence and good-nature. He wrote a history of Rome which is considered the major contribution on the topic between the works of Livy and Tacitus, and which was much referred to by later historians, but was later lost. A number of anecdotes regarding him survive and help to give an understanding of Roman life in the first century.

Bruttedius Niger was a rhetor and politician of the early Roman Empire. He also wrote a historical work.

Publius Rufus Anteius was a politician of ancient Rome of the 1st century CE.

The gens Laecania or Lecania was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens first appear in history during the reign of Tiberius. The first to attain the consulship was Gaius Laecanius Bassus in AD 40.

References

  1. 1 2 Alexander Lobur, John (3 June 2008). Consensus, Concordia and the Formation of Roman Imperial Ideology. Oxon: Routledge. p. 148. ISBN   978-1-135-86753-9 . Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Smith, William (1 January 2012). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Volume 1. Luton, United Kingdom: Taylor and Walton. p. 471. ISBN   978-1-130-29074-5 . Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 Sorek, Susan (3 May 2012). Ancient Historians: A Student Handbook. London: A&C Black. p. 197. ISBN   978-1-441-17991-3 . Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  4. 1 2 Hornblower, Simon (3 June 2008). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 148. ISBN   978-0-199-54556-8 . Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  5. Scullard, H. H. (13 May 2013). From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome 133 BC to AD 68. Oxon: Routledge. p. 355. ISBN   978-1-136-78386-9 . Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  6. 1 2 Wikisource-logo.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bassus, Aufidius". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 498. Endnotes: