Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/813

LONGINUS. nnd Marcia, while they condemned one, Aemilia. j Longinus condemned not only Licinia and Marcia, but also several other persons ; but the extreme severity with which he acted on this occasion was generally reprobated by public opinion. [Licinia, No. 2.] (Cic. pro S. Rose. BO ; Ascon. ire Milon. 12, p. 46, ed. Orelli ; Dion Cas. Fr. 92 ; Oros. v. 15; Liv. Epit.Q'6 Obsequ. 97; Plut. Quaest Rom. p. 284, b.) Ernesti {Clavis Cic.) and Orelli {Ojiom. TuU.) regard the tribune of B.C. 137, who proposed the tabellaria lex. as the father of the consul of B. c. 127, and of the censor of- B. c. 125. It is, however, very improbable that a tribune of the plebs should be the father of a person who was consul ten years afterwards ; and their identity is stronglj' supported b' the character which Cicero {Brut. 25) gives of the tribune, which is quite in accordance with the well-known severity of the judex and the censor. 5. L. Cassius Q. f. Q. n. Longinus, son of No. 3, was praetor b. c. Ill, and was sent to Nu- midia to bring Jugurtha to Rome, under promise of a safe conduct. Cassius also pledged his own word to Jugurtha for his security ; and so high was the reputation of Cassius, that the Numidian king valued this as much as the public promise. In B. c. 1 07 tie was consul with C. Marius, and received as his province Narbonese Gaul, in order to oppose the Cimbii and their allies; but in the course of the same year he was defeated and killed by the Tigurini in the territory of the Allobroges. (Sail. Jug. 32 ; Liv. Epit. 65 ; Oros. v. 15 ; Caes. B. G.i.7; Tac. Germ. 37.) 6. L. Cassius Longinus, described as L. f. by Asconius (i/i Cortiel. p. 78, ed. Orelli), son of No. 4, ■^^ as tribune of the plebs B.C. 104; and being a warm opponent of the aristocratical party, he 1 rought forward many laws to diminish their power. Among them was one which enacted that no one should be a senator whom the people had condemned, or who had been deprived of their iuiperiura: this law was levelled against his per- sonal enemy, Q. Servilius Caepio, who had been de- prived of his imperium on account of his defeat by the Cimbri. (Ascon. I. c.) 7. C. Cassius L. f. Q. n. Longinus, brother of No. 6, was consul B. c. 96, with Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus. He is mentioned by Cicero as one of those persons who were elected consuls notwith- standing their having failed to obtain the aedile- ship. {Ck. pro Plane. 2 .) 8. C. Cassius, C. f. C n. Longinus, of un- certain descent. He was chosen in B. c. 173 as one of the decemviri for distributing a portion of the Ligurian land ; and two years afterwards, B. c. 171, Avas consul with P. Licinius Crassus. He obtained .IS his province Italy and Cisalpine Gaul ; but anx- ious to distinguish himself in the war which had now commenced again.st Macedonia, he attempted to reach Macedonia by marching through Illyricum ; he was obliged, however, to relinquish his design, and return to Italy. In the following year, while he was serving as legate in Macedonia under the consul A. Hostilius Mancinus, he was accused be- fore the senate by ambassadors of the Gallic king, Cincibilus, as well as by ambassadors of the Carni, Istri and lapydes, who complained that Cassius had treated them as enemies in his attempt to penetrate into Macedonia in the previous year. The senate intimated their disapproval of the conduct of Cas- sius, but stated that they could not condemn a man LONGINUS. J<j9 of consular rank unheard, and while he was absent on the service of the state. In B. c. 154 Cassius was censor with M. Valerius Messalla. (Liv. xlii. 4, 28, 32, xliii. 1, 5 ; Oros. iv. 20; Plin. ff. N. vii. 3. s. 4 ; Cic. pro Dom. 50, 53 ; Plin. H. N. xvii. 25. s. 38.) A theatre, which these censors had contracted to have built, was pulled down by order of the senate, at the suggestion of P. Scipio Nasica, as useless and injurious to public morals. (Liv. Epit. 48 ; Veil. Pat. i. 15 ; Val. Max. ii. 4. § 2 ; Oros. iv, 21 ; Augustin, de Civ. Dei., i. 31 ; Appian, B. C. 1, 28, who erroneously calls Cassius Lueius., and places the event at too late a period.) Cassius accused M. Cato in his extreme old age : the speech of the latter, which he delivered in his defence, was extant in the time of Gellius. (Gell. X. 14 ; comp. Liv. xxxix. 40 ; Val. Max. viii. 7. § 1 ; Plut. Cat. 15 ; Meyer, Oral. Rom. Frag. p. Ill, 2d. ed.) 9. C. Cassiu.s, C. f. C. n. Longinus, son of No. 8, was consul B. c. 1 24, with C. Sextius Cal- vinus. (Fast. Sic. ; Cassiod. ; Veil. Pat. i. 15.) Eutropius (iv. 22) says that the colleague of Lon- ginus was C. Domitius Calvinus, and that he car- ried on war with him against Bituitus ; but both statements are erroneous. [Bituitus.] Obse- quens (c. 91) calls the other consul Sextilius. 10. C. Cassius Longinus Varus, of uncertain descent, was consul B.C. 73, with M. Terentius Varro Lucullus. In order to quiet the people, the consuls of this year brought forward a law {lex Terentia Cassia) by which corn was to be pur- chased and then sold in Rome at a small price. (Cic, Verr. i. 23, iii. 41.) In the following year Longinus commanded as proconsul in Cisalpine Gaul, and was defeated by Spartacus near Mutina, but was not killed in the battle, as Orosius states. (Liv. EpU. 96 ; Flor. iii. 20 ; Plut. Crass. 9 ; Oros. V. 24.) In B. c. QQ he supported the Mani- lian law for giving the command of the Mithridatic war to Pompey. (Cic. pro Leg. Man. 23.) He must have lived to a very Advanced age : the consular Varus, who was proscribed and killed at Miu- turnae in B. c. 43, can have been no other than the subject of this article, as we find no other consul with this surname from B. c. 73. (Appian, B. C. iv. 28.) 11. C. Cassius Longinus, the murderer of Julius Caesar, is sometimes represented as the son of the preceding [No. 10], but this is quite uncer- tain. He first appears in history as the quaestor of Crassus in his unfortunate campaign against the Parthians in B. c. 53, in which he greatly distin- guished himself by his prudence and military skill ; and if his advice had been followed by Crassus, the result of the campaign would probably have been very different. Indeed at first he attempted to dissuade Crassus from invading the country of the Parthians at all, and recommended him to take up a strong position on the Euphrates. In the fatal battle of Carrhae Cassius commanded one of the wings of the Roman army, and recommended the Roman general to extend his line, in order to pre- vent the enemy from attacking them on their flank, and likewise to distribute cavalry on the wings ; but here again his advice was not followed. After the defeat of the Roman army, Cassius and the legate, Octavius, conducted the remnants of it back to Carrhae, as Crassus had entirely lost all presence of mind, and was incapable of giving any orders. So highly was Cassius thought of by the Roman