Publius Crassus
The geographer Strabo refers to a treatise on the Cassiterides, the semi-legendary Tin Islands regarded as situated somewhere near the west coasts of Europe, written by a Publius Crassus but not now extant. Several scholars of the 19th and early 20th centuries, including Theodor Mommsen and T. Rice Holmes, thought that this prose work resulted from an expedition during Publius's grandson's occupation of Armorica. Scholars of the 20th and early 21st centuries have been more inclined to assign authorship to the elder Publius, during his proconsulship in Spain in the 90s BC, in which case the grandson's Armorican mission may have been prompted in part by business interests and a desire to capitalize on the earlier survey of resources.