Bassus
We find consuls of this name under Valerian for the years A. D. 258 and 259. One of these is probably the Pomponius Bassus who under Claudius came forward as a national sacrifice, because the Sibylline books had declared that the Goths could not be vanquished unless the chief senator of Rome should devote his life for his country; but the emperor would not allow him to execute this design, generously insisting, that the person pointed out by the Fates must be himself. The whole story, however, is very problematical. (Aurel. Vict. Epit. 100.34; comp. Julian, Caes. p. 11, and Tillemont on Claudius II.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.