BASSUS

bassus, aufidius, a roman historian, who lived in the reign of tiberius. his work, which probably began with the civil wars or the death of caesar, was continued by the elder pliny, who, as he himself tells us, carried it down at least as far as the end of nero's reign. the _bellum germanicum_ of bassus, which is commended, may have been either a separate work or a section of his general history. the elder seneca speaks highly of him as an historian, but the fragments preserved in that writer's _suasoriae_ (vi. 23) relating to the death of cicero, are characterized by an affected style. pliny, _nat. hist._, praefatio, 20; tacitus, _dialogus de oratoribus_, 23; quintilian, _instit_, x. 1. 103.