Bassus, Cesellius
a Roman knight, and a Carthaginian by birth, on the faith of a dream promised to discover for Nero immense treasures, which had been hidden by Dido when she fled to Africa. Nero gave full credit to this tale, and despatched vessels to carry the treasures to Rome; but Bassus, after digging about in every direction, was unable to find them, and in despair put an end to his life, A. D. 66. (Tac. Ann. 16.1-3; Suet. Nero 31.)
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.