Cassianus Bassus, called Scholasticus (lawyer), was one of the geoponici, a group of Greek and Latin writers on agricultural subjects.
Dedicated to his son, also called Bassus, his work was entitled Eklogai peri georgias ("Selections on farming"); the usual Latin version of this title is Eclogae de re rustica.
The original Greek text of Cassianus Bassus has been lost, but some of the contents have survived as part of a collection entitled Geoponica, completed about the year 950 and dedicated to the emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus.
It contains a full list of the authorities drawn upon, and the subjects treated include agriculture, birds, bees, horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, fishes and the like.
Similar views were expressed by Columella, long pre-dating Islamic taboos related to the animal, though Ibn Bassal and some later writers from Yemen also recorded negative effects of pig dung "burning" (haraqa) plants.