Asellio

• one of the early Roman historians, Cic. Leg. 1, 2.

was tribune of the soldiers under P. Scipio Africanus at Numantia, B. C. 133, and wrote a history of the affairs in which he had been engaged. (Gel. 2.13.) His work appears to have commenced with the Punic wars, and it contained a very full account of the times of the Gracchi. The exact title of the work, and the number of books into which it was divided, are not known. From the great superiority which Asellio assigns to history above annals (apud Gell. 5.18), it is pretty certain that his own work was not in the form of annals. It is sometimes cited by the name of libri rerum gestarunm, and sometimes by that of historiae; and it contained at least fourteen books. (Gel. 13.3, 21; Charis. ii. p. 195.) It is cited also in Gel. 1.13, 4.9, 13.3, 21; Priscian, v. p. 668; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. 12.121; Nonius, s. v. gliseitur.

Cicero speaks (de Leg. 1.2) slightingly of Asellio. P. Sempronius Asellio should be carefully distinguished from C. Sempronius Tuditanus, with whom he is often confounded. [Tuditanus.] Comp. Krause, Vitae et Fragm. Historicum Iatinorum, p. 216, &c.

Gaius (?) Sempronius. A Roman annalist. He was military tribune in Spain under P. Scipio Africanus in B.C. 133, and wrote a history of Rome from the time of the Punic Wars to the age of the Gracchi, or later.