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]

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: