Cassianus Bassus

Who is Cassianus Bassus?

Cassianus Bassus, called Scholasticus was one of the geoponici — the group of writers on agricultural subjects.

He lived at the end of the 6th or the beginning of the 7th century. He compiled from earlier writers a collection of agricultural literature; the principal source was Vindonius Anatolius. Dedicated to his son Bassus, his work was entitled Eklogai peri georgias; the usual Latin version of this title is Eclogae de re rustica.

The original Greek text of Cassianus Bassus has been lost, but some of the contents have survived as part of a collection entitled Geoponica, completed about the year 950 and dedicated to the emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. In addition, a 7th-century Middle Persian translation and two different Arabic language translations of respectively the 8th and 9th century have also survived.