Gaius Caesius Bassus (d. AD 79) was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

lyric poet who lived in the reign of

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...

. He was the intimate friend of

Persius Aulus Persius Flaccus (; 4 December 3424 November 62 AD) was a Roman poet and satirist of Etruscan origin. In his works, poems and satires, he shows a Stoic wisdom and a strong criticism for what he considered to be the stylistic abuses of hi ...

, who dedicated his sixth satire to him, and whose works he edited (''Schol. on Persius'', vi. I). He had a great reputation as a poet;

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintilia ...

(''Instit.'' x. I. 96) went so far as to say that with the exception of

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

, he was the only lyric poet worth reading. He is also identified with the author of a treatise ''De Metris'' of which considerable fragments, probably of an abbreviated edition, are extant (ed. Keil, 1885). The work was probably originally in verse, and afterwards recast or epitomized in

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the fo ...

form to be used as an instruction book. An account of some of the metres of Horace (in Keil, ''Grammatici Latini'', vi. 305), bearing the title ''Ars Caesii Bassi de Metris'' is not by him but chiefly borrowed by its unknown author, from the treatise mentioned above. He is said to have lost his life in the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.

References

External links

Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum
complete texts and full bibliography. Silver Age Latin writers Roman-era poets 1st-century Roman poets 79 deaths Deaths in volcanic eruptions Year of birth unknown {{Europe-writer-stub