Bassus, Caesius

1. A Roman lyric poet, who flourished about the middle of the first century. Quintilian (10.1.95) observes, " At Lyricorum idem Horatius fere solus legi dignus.... Si quemdam adjicere velis, is erit Caesius Bassus, quem nuper vidimus: sed eum longe praecedunt ingenia viventium." Two lines only of his compositions have been preserved, one of these, a dactylic hexameter from the second book of his Lyrics, is to be found in Priscian (x. p. 897, ed. Putsch); the other is quoted by Diomedes (iii. p. 513, ed. Putsch.) as an example of Molossian verse. The sixth satire of Persius is evidently addressed to this Bassus; and the old scholiast informs us, that he was destroyed along with his villa in A. D. 79 by the eruption of Vesuvius which overwhelmed Herculaneum and Pompeii. He must not be confounded with