Gaius Julius Quadratus Bassus

Gaius Julius Quadratus Bassus (70–117) was a Roman senator and general. He rose from provincial aristocratic origins to occupy the highest offices of Rome. He served as a legionary commander and as imperial governor of Judea, Cappadocia, Galatia, Syria and Dacia. He is known to have been active under Trajan in the Dacian and Parthian Wars. Bassus was suffect consul in the nundinium of May to August 105 with Gnaeus Afranius Dexter as his colleague.

Family Of Greek descent, Gaius Julius Quadratus Bassus was born in Pergamon to a family related to the Attalid dynasty and the Galatian tetrarchs. His father was Gaius Julius Bassus, who was Proconsul of Bithynia in 100 to 101. He is known to have had at least one son, Gaius Julius Bassus, who was suffect consul in 139.

Career

His career began as military tribune in Legio XIII Gemina around 87 to 89. This was followed by membership in the tresviri monetalis, one of the magistracies that comprised the vigintiviri, a preliminary and required first step toward gaining entry to the Roman Senate. This order is unusual: normally membership in the vigintiviri came before serving as military tribune in a legion. Dabrowa notes that this reversed order was not unusual for men who were born to the equestrian order but intended to enter the Senate. However, Bassus was made one of the tresviri monetalis: this magistracy was reserved either for patricians or men favored by the emperor. Dabrowa suggests that Bassus gained entry to this coveted board through the intervention of his relative Gaius Antius Aulus Julius Quadratus, three-time consul and "a man of high political and social standing".

After the vigintiviri Bassus was a quaestor, a junior position administering the public treasury, in the province of Crete and Cyrenaica around the year 92. This office gained him formal entry into the senate. He advanced to the traditional Roman magistracy of aedile, then around 98 he won election as a praetor. This last magistracy qualified Bassus to either govern provinces or serve as a legatus legionis or commander of a legion. Bassus sought a military career.