A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

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.