Gaius Cassius Longinus (; 86 BC – 3 October 42 BC) was a Roman senator and general best known as a leading instigator of the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar on 15 March 44 BC.Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution (Oxford University Press, 1939, reprinted 2002), p. 57 online; Elizabeth Rawson, "Caesar: Civil War and Dictatorship," in The Cambridge Ancient History: The Last Age of the Roman Republic 146–43 BC (Cambridge University Press, 1994), vol. 9, p. 465. He was the brother-in-law of Brutus, another leader of the conspiracy.Plutarch, Brutus. 7.1 He commanded troops with Brutus during the Battle of Philippi against the combined forces of Mark Antony and Octavius, Caesar's former supporters, and died by suicide after being defeated by Mark Antony.Plutarch, Brutus, 43
Cassius was elected as tribune of the plebs in 49 BC.Appian, Civil Wars., 2.33 He opposed Caesar, and eventually he commanded a fleet against him during Caesar's Civil War: after Caesar defeated Pompey in the Battle of Pharsalus, Caesar overtook Cassius and forced him to surrender.Appian, Civil Wars., 2.33Appian, Civil Wars., 2.87Appian, Civil Wars., 2.88 After Caesar's death, Cassius fled to the east to Syria, where he amassed an army of twelve legions. He was supported and made governor by the Senate.Appian, Civil Wars., 4.58 Later he and Brutus marched west against the allies of the Second Triumvirate.
Cassius followed the teachings of the philosopher Epicurus, although scholars debate whether or not these beliefs affected his political life. Cassius is a main character in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar that depicts the assassination of Caesar and its aftermath. He is also shown in the lowest circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno as punishment for betraying and killing Caesar.Dante, Inferno: Canto XXXIVCook, W. R., & Herzman, R. B. (1979). "Inferno XXXIII: The Past and the Present in Dante's "Imagery of Betrayal". Italica, 56(4), 377–383. . "For the vision of Satan that is Dante the pilgrim's last glimpse of hell shows the three mouths of Satan gnawing on each of the three great traitors - Brutus, Cassius, and Judas."
Biography Early life
Gaius Cassius Longinus came from a very old Roman family, gens Cassia, which had been prominent in Rome since the 6th century BC. Little is known of his early life, apart from a story that he showed his dislike of despots while still at school, by quarreling with the son of the dictator Sulla.Plutarch, Brutus, 9.1-4 He studied philosophy at Rhodes under Archelaus of Rhodes and became fluent in Greek.Appian, Civil Wars, 4.67. He was married to Junia Tertia, who was the daughter of Servilia and thus a half-sister of his co-conspirator Brutus. They had one son, who was born in about 60 BC.Plutarch, Brutus, 14.4
Carrhae and Syria In 54 BC, Cassius joined Marcus Licinius Crassus in his eastern campaign against the Parthian Empire as quaestor.Plutarch, Crassus, 18 In 53 BC, Crassus led the Roman army at the Battle of Carrhae in Northern-Mesopotamia, considered the worst defeat since the disastrous loss at Cannae in 216 BC against Hannibal. Cassius led the remaining troops' retreat back into Syria, and organised an effective defence force for the province.Dio, Roman History, 40.28 Plutarch’s account suggests Crassus could have avoided crushing defeat in Carrhae by listening to Cassius' advice not to invade Parthia.
According to Dio, the Roman soldiers, as well as Crassus himself, were willing to give the overall command to Cassius after the initial disaster in the battle, which Cassius refused.Dio, Roman History, 40.28 The Parthians also considered Cassius as equal to Crassus in authority, and superior to him in ability. In 51 BC, Cassius was able to ambush and defeat an invading Parthian army under the command of prince Pacorus and general Osaces.Dio, Roman History, 40.28 He first refused to do battle with the Parthians, keeping his army behind the walls of Antioch (Syria's most important city) where he was besieged. When the Parthians gave up the siege and started to ravage the countryside, he followed them with his army harassing them as they went. The decisive encounter came on October 7 as the Parthians turned away from Antigonea. As they set about their return journey they were confronted by a detachment of Cassius's army, which faked a retreat and lured the Parthians into an ambush. The Parthians were suddenly surrounded by Cassius's main forces and defeated. Their general Osaces died from his wounds, and the rest of the Parthian army retreated back across the Euphrates.Dio, Roman History, 40.29Gareth C. Sampson, The defeat of Rome, Crassus' Carrhae & the invasion of the East, p.159
Civil war
Cassius returned to Rome in 50 BC, when civil war was about to break out between Julius Caesar and Pompey.Plutarch, Brutus, 7 Cassius was elected tribune of the plebs for 49 BC, and threw in his lot with the Optimates, although his brother Lucius Cassius supported Caesar.Appian, Civil Wars., 2.33 Cassius left Italy shortly after Caesar crossed the Rubicon. He met Pompey in Greece, and was appointed to command part of his fleet. In 48 BC, Cassius sailed his ships to Sicily, where he attacked and burned a large part of Caesar's navy.Caesar, Civil War, iii.101. He then proceeded to harass ships off the Italian coast. News of Pompey's defeat at the Battle of Pharsalus caused Cassius to head for the Hellespont, with hopes of allying with the king of Pontus, Pharnaces II. Cassius was overtaken by Caesar en route, and was forced to surrender unconditionally.However, both Suetonius (Caesar, 63 ) and Cassius Dio (Roman History, 42.6) say that it was Lucius Cassius who surrendered to Caesar at the Hellespont.
Caesar made Cassius a legate, employing him in the Alexandrian War against the very same Pharnaces whom Cassius had hoped to join after Pompey's defeat at Pharsalus. However, Cassius refused to join in the fight against Cato and Scipio in Africa, choosing instead to retire to Rome. Cassius spent the next two years in office, and apparently tightened his friendship with Cicero.In a letter written in 45 BC, Cassius says to Cicero, "There is nothing that gives me more pleasure to do than to write to you; for I seem to be talking and joking with you face to face" (Ad Fam., xv.19). In 44 BC, he became praetor peregrinus with the promise of the Syrian province for the ensuing year. The appointment of his junior and brother-in-law, Marcus Brutus, as praetor urbanus deeply offended him.
Although Cassius was "the moving spirit" in the plot against Caesar, winning over the chief assassins to the cause of tyrannicide, Brutus became their leader.T.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (American Philological Association, 1952), vol. 2, p. 320, citing Plutarch, Brutus 7.1–3 and Caesar 62.2; and Appian, Bellum Civile 4.57. On the Ides of March, 44 BC, Cassius urged on his fellow liberators and struck Caesar in the chest. Though they succeeded in assassinating Caesar, the celebration was short-lived, as Mark Antony seized power and turned the public against them. In letters written during 44 BC, Cicero frequently complains that Rome was still subjected to tyranny, because the "Liberators" had failed to kill Antony.For instance, Cicero, Ad Fam., xii.3.1. According to some accounts, Cassius had wanted to kill Antony at the same time as Caesar, but Brutus dissuaded him.Velleius Paterculus, 2.58.5; Plutarch, Brutus, 18.2-6.
Post-assassination Cassius's reputation in the East made it easy to amass an army from other governors in the area, and by 43 BC, he was ready to take on Publius Cornelius Dolabella with 12 legions. By this point, the Senate had split with Antonius, and cast its lot with Cassius, confirming him as governor of the province. Dolabella attacked but was betrayed by his allies, leading him to commit suicide. Cassius was now secure enough to march on Egypt, but on the formation of the Second Triumvirate, Brutus requested his assistance. Cassius quickly joined Brutus in Smyrna with most of his army, leaving his nephew behind to govern Syria as well.
The conspirators decided to attack the triumvirate's allies in Asia. Cassius set upon and sacked Rhodes in 43 BC, while Brutus did the same to Lycia. They regrouped the following year in Sardis, where their armies proclaimed them imperator. They crossed the Hellespont, marched through Thrace, and encamped near Philippi in Macedon. Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian (later known as Augustus) and Mark Antony soon arrived, and Cassius planned to starve them out through the use of their superior position in the country; however, they were forced into a pair of battles by Antony, collectively known as the Battle of Philippi. Brutus was successful against Octavian, and took his camp. Cassius was defeated and overrun by Mark Antony. Unaware of Brutus's victory, he ordered his freeman Pindarus to help him kill himself. Pindarus fled afterwards and Cassius's head was found severed from his body.Plutarch, Life of Brutus, 43.5-6. He was mourned by Brutus as "the Last of the Romans" and buried in Thassos.Plutarch, Life of Brutus, 44.2.
Epicureanism "Among that select band of philosophers who have managed to change the world," writes David Sedley, "it would be hard to find a pair with a higher public profile than Brutus and Cassius – brothers-in-law, fellow-assassins, and Shakespearian heroes," adding that "it may not even be widely known that they were philosophers."David Sedley, "The Ethics of Brutus and Cassius," Journal of Roman Studies 87 (1997) 41–53. Like Brutus, whose Stoic proclivities are widely assumed but who is more accurately described as an Antiochean Platonist, Cassius exercised a long and serious interest in philosophy. His early philosophical commitments are hazy, though D.R. Shackleton Bailey thought that a remark by CiceroCicero, Ad familiares xv.16.3. indicates a youthful adherence to the Academy.As cited by Miriam Griffin, "Philosophy, Politics, and Politicians at Rome," in Philosophia togata: Essays on Philosophy and Roman Society (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989).
Sometime between 48 and 45 BC, Cassius famously converted to the school of thought founded by Epicurus. Although Epicurus advocated a withdrawal from politics, at Rome his philosophy was made to accommodate the careers of many prominent men in public life, among them Caesar's father-in-law, Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus.For a survey of Roman Epicureans active in politics, see Arnaldo Momigliano, review of Science and Politics in the Ancient World by Benjamin Farrington (London 1939), in Journal of Roman Studies 31 (1941), pp. 151–157. Arnaldo Momigliano called Cassius's conversion a "conspicuous date in the history of Roman Epicureanism," a choice made not to enjoy the pleasures of the Garden, but to provide a philosophical justification for assassinating a tyrant.Momigliano, Journal of Roman Studies 31 (1941), p. 151.