| Bio |

Who they were

Gaius Cassius Longinus was born around 86 BC^[4]. Smith's Dictionary says he is sometimes called the son of an earlier Cassius Longinus, but calls this quite uncertain^[2]. His brother Lucius sided with Caesar when civil war broke out^[2]. Plutarch tells a story from Cassius's school days. When Faustus, son of Sulla, bragged about his father's absolute power, Cassius sprang up and gave him a thrashing^[3]. Smith adds that Cassius learned Greek from Archelaus of Rhodes and followed the Epicurean philosophy, a Greek school of thought^[2].

Cassius first appears in history as quaestor, a financial officer, to the general Crassus on his Parthian campaign of 53 BC^[2]. Smith says his advice before the disastrous battle of Carrhae was not followed^[2]. After the defeat he made his escape to Syria with 500 horsemen, then gathered the remains of the army^[2]. The Parthians, Rome's neighbours beyond the Euphrates, attacked the province again in 51 BC with a much larger army^[2]. Cassius threw himself into the fortified city of Antioch^[2], then followed the Parthians and won a victory in September^[2]. Smith adds that he was generally supposed, with justice, to have fleeced the provincials unmercifully^[2].

In 49 BC Cassius was a tribune of the plebs, an elected Roman official, and left Rome to join Pompey in Greece^[2]. After Pompey's defeat, Appian says Cassius met Caesar on the Hellespont, begged pardon and surrendered his fleet^{[1, p. 87]}. Smith says Caesar forgave him^[2]. Caesar later made him praetor peregrinus, a senior magistrate, and promised him Syria for the following year^[2]. But Brutus won the more senior city praetorship; Plutarch has Caesar judge Cassius's claim the juster, yet give Brutus the post^[3]. On 15 March 44 BC, Appian says, Cassius wounded Caesar in the face^{[1, p. 87]}.

After the murder the conspirators fled to the Capitol^[2]. Cassius and Brutus left Rome in mid-April^[2]. Cassius left his nephew Lucius as governor of Syria and set out to join Brutus^[2]. Early in 42 BC the two met at Sardis, then took up a position near Philippi in Macedonia^[2]. On 3 October^[4] Antony defeated Cassius's wing and took his camp^[2]. In Smith's account, supposing all was lost, Cassius ordered his freedman Pindarus to end his life^[2]. Brutus called him the last of the Romans and had him buried on Thasos^[2].

The plotters were bitterly disappointed when supreme power passed to Antony^[2]. Within three years of the assassination, the men most responsible were dead^[4]. His widow, Junia Tertia, a half-sister of Brutus, outlived him by more than sixty years and died in AD 22^[2]. Cassius's name outlived him too. In AD 40 the emperor Caligula ordered a later Cassius Longinus, proconsul of Asia, to be brought to Rome in chains because he descended from the great republican family^[2]. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar has Caesar describe Cassius as having a lean and hungry look^[5].

Plutarch gives Cassius a lighter side. He says that with his close friends Cassius was rather prone to laughter and fond of banter^[3]. Before Philippi he took Messala's hand and spoke to him in Greek, as was his custom when he wished to show affection^[3]. On the morning of the Ides his son was to put on the toga virilis, the toga of manhood, and the plotters escorted the boy to the forum^[3].

| Legacy & Reputation |

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