[b] Saleius Bassus has been already mentioned, s. v. note [a].  It may be added in this place, that the critics of his time concurred in giving him the warmest praise, not only as a good and excellent man, but also as an eminent and admirable poet.  He was descended from a family of distinction, but was poor and often distressed.  Whether he or Caesius Bassus was the friend of Persius, is not perfectly clear.  Be the fact as it may, the satirist describes a fine poet, and his verses were applicable to either of them: 

Jamne lyra, et tetrico vivunt tibi pectine chordae? 
Mire opifex numeris veterum primordia rerum,
Atque marem strepitum fidis intendisse Latinae;
Mox juvenes agitare jocos, et pollice honesto
Egregios lusisse senes. 

          
                                                        PERSIUS, sat. vi.

[c] Before the invention of printing, copies were not easily multiplied.  Authors were eager to enjoy their fame, and the pen of the transcriber was slow and tedious.  Public rehearsals were the road to fame.  But an audience was to be drawn together by interest, by solicitation, and public advertisements.  Pliny, in one of his letters, has given a lively description of the difficulties which the author had to surmount.  This year, he says, has produced poets in great abundance.  Scarce a day has passed in the month of April, without the recital of a poem.  But the greater part of the audience comes with reluctance; they loiter in the lobbies, and there enter into idle chat, occasionally desiring to know, whether the poet is in his pulpit? has he begun? is his preface over? has he almost finished?  They condescended, at last, to enter the room; they looked round with an air of indifference, and soon retired, some by stealth, and others with open contempt.  Hence the greater praise is due to those authors, who do not suffer their genius to droop, but, on the contrary, amidst the most discouraging circumstances, still persist to cultivate the liberal arts.  Pliny adds, that he himself attended all the public readings, and, for that purpose, staid longer in the city than was usual with him.  Being, at length, released, he intended, in his rural retreat, to finish a work of his own, but not to read it in public, lest he should be thought to claim a return of the civility which he had shewn to others.  He was a bearer, and not a creditor.  The favour conferred, if redemanded, ceases to be a favour. Magnum proventum poetarum annus hic attulit.  Toto mense Aprili nullus fere dies, quo non recitaret aliquis.  Tametsi ad audiendum pigre coitur.  Plerique in stationibus sedent, tempusque audiendis fabulis conterunt, ac subinde sibi nuntiari jubent, an jam recitator intraverit, an dixerit praefationem, an ex magna parte evolverit librum?  Tum demum, ac tune quoque lente, cunctanterque veniunt, nec tamen remanent, sed ante finem recedunt; alii dissimulanter, ac furtim, alii,