Aufidius Bassus Explained
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]
External links
- Book: Seneca . Seneca the Younger. XXX On Conquering the Conqueror . Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales . Gummere, Richard M. . Richard M. Gummere . I . 210-221 . Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England . Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd . Internet Archive . 1917 . 9 August 2020.
Notes and References
- Book: Alexander Lobur, John . 3 June 2008. Consensus, Concordia and the Formation of Roman Imperial Ideology. 8 March 2022 . Oxon. Routledge . 148. 978-1-135-86753-9.
- Book: Smith, William . 1 January 2012. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Volume 1. 8 March 2022 . Luton, United Kingdom. Taylor and Walton. 471. 978-1-130-29074-5.
- Book: Sorek, Susan . 3 May 2012. Ancient Historians: A Student Handbook. 8 March 2022 . London . A&C Black . 197. 978-1-441-17991-3.
- Book: Hornblower, Simon . 3 June 2008. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 8 March 2022 . Oxford . Oxford University Press . 148. 978-0-199-54556-8.
- Book: Scullard, H. H. . 13 May 2013. From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome 133 BC to AD 68. 8 March 2022 . Oxon . Routledge . 355. 978-1-136-78386-9.
- Endnotes:
