Cassius, Dionysius

(Διονύσιος Κάσσιος), a native of Utica, lived about B. C. 40. He translated the great work of the Carthaginian Mago on agriculture from the Punic into Greek, but in such a manner that he condensed the twenty-eight books of the original into twenty, although he made numerous additions to it from the best Greek writers on agriculture. He dedicated this work to the praetor Sextilius. Diophanes of Bithynia, again, made a useful abridgement of the work in six books, which he dedicated to king Deiotarus. The work of Dionysius Cassius is mentioned among those used by Cassianus Bassus in compiling the Geoponica at the command of Constantinus Porphyrogeneta. (Varro, De Re Rust. 1.1; Columella, 1.1; Athen. 14.648; Plin. Nat. 20.44; Geoponica, 1.11.) Cassius also wrote a work ῥιζοτομικά. (Schol. ad Nicand. 520; Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἰτύκη.) With the exception of the extracts in the Geoponica, the works of Cassius have perished.

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