Julius Bassus

This article is about the late 1st century BCE/early 1st century CE orator. For the 1st century CE Roman senator, see Gaius Julius Bassus.

Julius Bassus was a rhetorician and orator of ancient Rome. He lived around the late 1st century BCE and early 1st century CE. ^[1]

This Bassus is frequently mentioned by Seneca the Elder in his Controversiae, and seems to be the same person as the Junius Bassus who was called the "white ass" (asinus albus) when the 1st-century rhetorician Quintilian was a boy, and who was distinguished by his mordant, insulting, even abusive wit. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5]} Some scholars disagree whether these two were the same person. ^[6]

This person also may be the same as the "Bassus" mentioned briefly as a friend of the Latin poet Ovid. ^[7]

His harrowing portrayal of the suffering of a prisoner bound in chains over a long time span, quoted by Seneca, suggests he once may have been so imprisoned, or knew closely someone who was. ^[8]

References

1. Teuffel, Wilhelm Sigmund (1900). von Schwabe, Ludwig (ed.). Teuffel's History of Roman Literature. Vol. 1. Translated by Warr, George Charles Winster. G. Bell & sons. p. 567. Retrieved 2026-01-01.
2. Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 6.3. §§ 27, 57, 74
3. Green, Elbert H. (1940). "Furius Bibaculus". The Classical Journal . 35 (6). Classical Association of the Middle West and South: 351. JSTOR   3291243 . Retrieved 2026-01-01.
4. Reekmans, T. (1992). "Verbal Humour in Plutarch and Suetonius' Lives". Ancient Society. 23. KU Leuven: 189–232. JSTOR   44079481 . Retrieved 2026-01-01.
5. Bailey, D. R. Shackleton (1983). "Notes on Quintilian". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology . 87. Harvard University Press: 222. JSTOR   311259 . Retrieved 2026-01-01.
6. Clarke, M. L. (1967). "Quintilian: A Biographical Sketch". Greece & Rome. 14 (1). Cambridge University Press: 27. Retrieved 2026-01-01.
7. British School at Rome (1912). Jones, Henry Stuart (ed.). A Catalogue of the Ancient Sculptures Preserved in the Municipal Collections of Rome. Clarendon Press. p. 58. Retrieved 2026-01-01.
8. Rapske, Brian (2004). The Book of Acts and Paul in Roman Custody. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 208. ISBN   9780802829122 . Retrieved 2026-01-01.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Smith, William (1870). "Bassus, Julius". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . Vol. 1. p. 473.