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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

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 a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his ...

. 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 satire, he shows a Stoic wisdom and a strong criticism for what he considered to be the stylistic abuses of his ...

, 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 born in Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quin ...

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

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

, 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 language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

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 1st-century Roman poets Deaths in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD 79 deaths Year of birth unknown Year of birth missing {{Europe-writer-stub