Basilides is an early Gnostic religious teacher in Alexandria, Egypt, who teaches from 117–138 CE, and was a pupil of either Menander, or an alleged interpreter of St. Peter named Glaucias.

The Acts of the Disputation with Manes state that for a time he taught among the Persians.

He is believed to have written over two dozen books of commentary on the Christian Gospel (now all lost) entitled Exegetica, making him one of the earliest Gospel commentators.

The followers of Basilides, the Basilidians, form a movement that persists for at least two centuries after him – St. Epiphanius of Salamis, at the end of the 4th century, recognizesa persistent Basilidian Gnosis in Egypt.

It is probable, however, that the school melded into the main stream of Gnosticism by the latter half of the 2nd century.