A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

B3ASSUS.
direction, was unable to find them, and in despair
put an end to his life, A. D. 66. (Tac. Ann. xvi.
1-3; Suet. Ner. 31.)
BASSUS, GA'VIUS or GA'BIUS, a learned,
grammarian, whose Commentarii and treatise De
Origine Verboruim et Vocabulorum are cited by Gellius (ii. 4, iii. 9, 19, v. 7, xi. 17). He is probably
the same with the writer of the work De Diis,
spoken of by Macrobius (Sat. i. 19, iii. 6, compare
iii. 18), and perhaps to him belong the Satirae also
from which Fulgentius Planciades quotes a line.
(Sernm. Antiq. Explic.) We hear of a Gavius Bassus who was praefectus of the Pontic coast under
Trajan (Plin. Ep. x. 18, 32, 33), but those who
would identify him with the person mentioned
above have overlooked the circumstance that the
author of the commentaries declares, that he beheld
with his own eyes at Argos the famous equus
Seianus, which was said to have belonged in succession to Dolabella, Cassius, and M. Antonius;
and hence it is clear that, unless in addition to its
peculiar property of entailing inevitable destruction
upon its possessor, it had likewise received the gift
of longer life than ever steed enjoyed before, it
could hardly have been seen by a contemporary of
the younger Pliny. The praenomen Gavius or
Gaubius has in many MSS. been corrupted into
Gaius or Caius, and then abbreviated into C.,
which has given rise to considerable confusion;
but, for anything we can prove to the contrary,
each of the above-mentioned books may be from
the pen of a distinct individual. [W. R.]
BASSUS JU'LIUS. [BAssUs, p. 471, b.]
BASSUS, JU'LIUS, a Roman orator, frequently mentioned by the elder Seneca in his
Controversiae, seems to be the same as the Junius
Bassus who was called Alsinus albus when Quintilian was a boy, and who was distinguished by
his abusive wit. (Quintil. vi. 3. ~~ 27, 57, 74.)
BASSUS, LOLLIUS (Ao'AAos Bado-oos), the
author of ten epigrams in the Greek Anthology, is
called, in the title of the second epigram, a native
of Smyrna. His time is fixed by the tenth epigram, on the death of Germanicus, who died A. D.
19. (Tac. Ann. ii. 71.) [P. S.]
BASSUS, LUCI'LIUS, a name used by Cicero
as proverbial for a vain and worthless author. In
a letter to Atticus (xii. 5), speaking of his panegyric upon Cato, he says, " I am well pleased with
my work, but so is Bassus Lucilius with his."
Some MSS. here have Caecilius. [W. R.]
BASSUS, LUCI'LIUS, was promoted by
Vitellius from the command of a squadron of
cavalry to be admiral of the fleet at Ravenna and
Misenum, i. c. 70; but disappointed at not obtaining the command of the praetorian troops, he
betrayed the fleet to Vespasian. After the death
of Vitellius, Bassus was sent to put down some
disturbances in Campania. (Tac. Hist. ii. 100, iii.
12, 36, 40, iv. 3.) His name occurs in an inscription. (Gruter, p. 573.)
BASSUS, POMPO'NIUS, was consul A. D.
211, under Septimius Severus, and at a subsequent
period fell a victim to the licentious cruelty of
Elagabalus, who having become enacmoured of his
fair and high-born wife, Annia Faustina, a descendant (diroyovos, probably great-grandaughter)
of M. Aurelius, caused Bassus to be put to death
by the senate under some frivolous pretext, and
then married the widow with indecent haste.
This event took place in 221.

BATEIA. 473
The Bassus who was governor of Mysia under
Caracalla may have been the father or the son of
the above. (Dion Cass. lxxviii. 21, lxxix. 5;
Herodian, v. 6, 5.) [W. R.]
BASSUS, SALEIUS, a Roman epic poet,
contemporary with Statius. Quintilian thus
characterises his genius: " vehemens et poeticum
fuit nec ipsum senectute maturum." The last
words are somewhat obscure, but probably signify
that he died young, before his powers were ripened
by years. He is the " tenuis Saleius" of Juvenal,
one of the numerous band of literary men whose
poverty and sufferings the satirist so feelingly deplores; but at a later period his wants were
relieved by the liberality of Vespasian, as we learn
from the dialogue on the decline of eloquence,
where warm praise is lavished on his abilities and
moral worth.
We have not even a fragment acknowledged as
the production of this Bassus. A panegyric, indeed, in 261 heroic hexameters, on a certain Calpurnius Piso, has been preserved, the object and
the author of which are equally uncertain; and
hence we find it attributed to Virgil, to Ovid, to
Statius, and very frequently to Lucan, whose
name is said to be prefixed in some MSS., while
Wernsdorf, rejecting all these suppositions, labours
hard to prove that it ought to be ascribed to Saleius
Bassus, and that the Piso who is the hero of the
piece must be the well-known leader of the great
conspiracy against Nero. The strong points in the
position are the allusions (1. 180) to the game of
draughts in which this Piso is known to have
been an adept (Vet. Schol. ad Jzv. v. 109), and
the references by the writer to his own humble
origin and narrow means, a description altogether
inapplicable to the well-born and wealthy bard of
Corduba. Granting, however, that Wernsdorf is
right so far as Piso and Lucan are concerned, it by
no means follows, from the simple fact that the
author in question was poor and neglected, that we
are entitled, in the absence of all other evidence
direct or circumstantial, to identify him with
Saleius Bassus, for it is certain that the same conditions would hold good of Statius, Serranus, and
a long list of versifiers belonging to the same
period. (Quint. x. 1, 90; Dialog. de Oratt. cc.
5, 9; Juv. vii. 80; Wernsdorf, Poett. Latt. Minn.
vol. iv. P. i. pp. 36, 72, 75, 236.) [EW. R.]
BASSUS, SEPU'LLIUS, a Roman orator,
frequently mentioned by the elder Seneca. (Controv. iii. 16, 17, 20-22.)
BASSUS, SI'LIUS, a Roman orator, mentioned by the elder Seneca. (Controv. i. 6, 7.)
BA'TALUS (BaraAos), according to some, the
author of lascivious drinking-songs, and according
to others, an effeminate flute-player, who must
have lived shortly before the time of Demosthenes,
for the latter is said to have been nick-named Batalus on account of his weakly and deliccate constitution. (Plut. Dem. 4, Vit. X. Orat. p. 847, e.)
According to Libanius ( Vit. Dem. p. 2, ed. Reiske),
Batalus, the flute-player, was a native of Ephcsus,
and the first man that ever appeared on the stage
in women's shoes, for which reason he was ridiculed in a comedy of Antiphanes. Whether the
poet and the flute-player were the same, or two
different persons, is uncertain. (Comp. Meineke,
list. Crit. Conm. Graec. p. 333, &c.) [L. S.]
BATEIA (Birela), a dNaughter of Teucer or of
Tros (Steph. Byz. s. v. AdSaxaos), the wiie of Dar