Basilius, a river of Mesopotamia falling into the Euphrates. Strabo.——A celebrated bishop of Africa, very animated against the Arians, whose tenets and doctrines he refuted with warmth, but great ability. He was eloquent as well as ingenious, and possessed of all those abilities which constitute the persuasive orator and the elegant writer. Erasmus has placed him in the number of the greatest orators of antiquity. He died in his 51st year, A.D. 379. The latest edition of his works is that of the Benedictines, folio, Paris, 1721.
Basĭlus, a general who assisted Antony. Lucan, bk. 4, li. 416.——An insignificant lawyer. Juvenal, satire 7, li. 146.——A pretor who plundered the provinces. Juvenal, satire 10, li. 222.
Bassæ, a place of Arcadia, where Apollo had a temple. Pausanias, bk. 8, chs. 30 & 41.
Bassania, a town of Macedonia near Illyricum. Livy, bk. 44, ch. 30.
Bassăreus, a surname of Bacchus, from the dress or long robe, called Bassaris, which his priests wore. Horace, bk. 1, ode 18.
Bassărĭdes, a name given to the votaries of Bacchus, and to Agave by Persius, which seems derived from Bassara, a town of Libya sacred to the god, or from a particular dress worn by his priestesses, and so called by the Thracians. Persius, bk. 1, li. 101.
Bassus Aufidius, an historian in the age of Augustus, who wrote on the Germanic war. Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.——Cæsius, a lyric poet in Nero’s age, to whom Persius addressed his sixth satire. Some of his verses are extant.——Julius, an orator in the reign of Augustus, some of whose orations have been preserved by Seneca.——A man spoken of by Horace, bk. 1, ode 36, li. 14, and described as fond of wine and women.
Bastarnæ and Basternæ, a people of European Sarmatia, destroyed by a sudden storm as they pursued the Thracians. Livy, bk. 40, ch. 58.—Ovid, Tristia, bk. 2, li. 198.—Strabo, bk. 7.
Bastia, the wife of Metellus. Livy, fragment, bk. 89.
Bata, a seaport of Asia, on the Euxine, opposite Sinope. Strabo, bk. 6.