Nasidius

Profile

Nasidius appears in the Divine Comedy as a term of comparison within the Inferno. Verse 95 of Canto XXV mentions him alongside Sabellus, in a survey of mythological and literary cases recalled by Dante: of the wretched Sabellus and of Nasidius. The authorized note on the same canto specifies that Sabellus and Nasidius are two among the many soldiers of Cato's army who, while crossing the Libyan desert, are bitten by poisonous serpents; the first dissolves into ashes, while the second swells until he loses every human semblance. The same note also indicates that the scene of Nasidius, with its description of a body that loses human form, provided Dante with the inspiration for the monstrous figure described in the same bolgia. The name is cited exclusively in this verse, as a simple allusion to the Lucanian model.