Basilus

the name of a family of the Minucia gens. Persons of this name occur only in the first century B. C. It is frequently written Basilius, but the best MSS. have Basilus, which is also shewn to be the correct form by the line of Lucan (4.416),

" Et Basilum videre ducem," &c.

1. (Minucius) Basilus, a tribune of the soldiers, served under Sulla in Greece in his campaign against Archelaus, the general of Mithridates, B. C. 86. (Appian, App. Mith. 50.)

2. M. Minucius Basilus. (Cic. Clu. 38.)

3. Minucius Basilus, of whom we know nothing, except that his tomb was on the Appian way, and was a spot infamous for robberies. (Cic. Att. 7.9; Ascon. in Milon, p. 50, ed. Orelli.)

4. L. Minucius Basilus, the uncle of M. Satrius, the son of his sister, whom he adopted in his will. (Cic. de Off. 3.18.)

5. L. Minucius Basilus, whose original name was M. Satrius, took the name of his uncle, by whom he was adopted. [No. 4.] He served under Caesar in Gaul, and is mentioned in the war against Ambiorix, B. C. 54, and again in 52, at the end of which campaign he was stationed among the Remi for the winter with the command of two legions. (Caes. Gal. 6.29, 30, 7.92.) He probably continued in Gaul till the breaking out of the civil war in 49, in which he commanded part of Caesar's fleet. (Flor. 4.2.32; Lucan, 4.416.) He was one of Caesar's assassins in B. C. 44, although, like Brutus and others, he was a personal friend of the dictator. In the following year he was himself murdered by his own slaves, because he had punished some of them in a barbarous manner. (Appian, App. BC 2.113, 3.98; Oros. 6.18.) There is a letter of Cicero's to Basilus, congratulating him on the murder of Caesar. (Cic. Fam. 6.15.)

6. (Minucius) Basilus, is attacked by Cicero in the second Philippic (100.41) as a friend of Antony. He would therefore seem to be a different person from No. 5.