Gaius Cassius Longinus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 86 BC |
| Died | 3 October 42 BC (aged 44) |
| Cause of death | Suicide |
| Resting place | Thasos, Greece |
| Nationality | Roman |
| Other names | Last of the Romans[2] |
| Occupation(s) | General and politician |
| Known for | Assassination of Julius Caesar |
| Office | Tribune of the plebs (49 BC) Praetor (44 BC) Consul designate (41 BC) |
| Spouse | Junia Tertia |
| Children | Gaius Cassius Longinus |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | Roman Republic Pompey |
| Years | 54–42 BC |
| Battles / wars | Battle of Carrhae Caesar's civil war Battle of Philippi |
Gaius Cassius Longinus (Classical Latin:[ˈɡaːi.ʊsˈkassi.ʊsˈlɔŋɡɪnʊs];c. 86 BC – 3 October 42 BC) was aRomansenator and general best known as a leading instigator of the plot to assassinateJulius Caesar on 15 March 44 BC.[3][4][5] He was the brother-in-law ofBrutus, another leader ofthe conspiracy.[6] He commanded troops with Brutus during theBattle of Philippi against the combined forces ofMark Antony andOctavian, Caesar's former supporters, and committed suicide after being defeated by Mark Antony.[7]
Cassius was elected astribune of the plebs in 49 BC.[8] He opposed Caesar, and eventually he commanded a fleet against him duringCaesar's Civil War: after Caesar defeatedPompey in theBattle of Pharsalus, Caesar overtook Cassius and forced him to surrender.[9][10][11] 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.[12] Later he and Brutus marched west against the allies of theSecond Triumvirate.
He followed the teachings of the philosopherEpicurus, although scholars debate whether or not these beliefs affected his political life. Cassius is a main character inWilliam Shakespeare's playJulius Caesar that depicts theassassination of Caesar and its aftermath. He is also shown in the lowest circle ofHell inDante'sInferno as punishment for betraying and killing Caesar.[13][14]
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 dictatorSulla.[15] He studied philosophy atRhodes under Archelaus of Rhodes and became fluent inGreek.[16] He was married toJunia Tertia, who was the daughter ofServilia and thus a half-sister of his co-conspiratorBrutus. They had one son, who was born in about 60 BC.[17]
In 54 BC, Cassius joinedMarcus Licinius Crassus in his eastern campaign against theParthian Empire as quaestor.[18] In 53 BC, Crassus led the Roman army at theBattle of Carrhae in Northern-Mesopotamia, considered the worst defeat since the disastrous loss at Cannae in 216 BC against Hannibal.[19] Cassius led the remaining troops' retreat back into Syria, and organised an effective defence force for the province.[20] Plutarch’s account suggests Crassus could have avoided crushing defeat in Carrhae by listening to Cassius advice not to invade Parthia.[21] 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.[22] The Parthians also considered Cassius as equal to Crassus in authority, and superior to him in skill.
In 51 BC, Cassius was able to ambush and defeat an invading Parthian army under the command of princePacorus and general Osaces.[23] He first refused to do battle with the Parthians, keeping his army behind the walls ofAntioch (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' army, which faked a retreat and lured the Parthians into an ambush. The Parthians were suddenly surrounded by Cassius' main forces and defeated. Their general Osaces died from his wounds, and the rest of the Parthian army retreated back across theEuphrates.[24][25]
Cassius returned to Rome in 50 BC, whencivil war was about to break out betweenJulius Caesar andPompey.[26] Cassius was electedtribune of the plebs for 49 BC, and threw in his lot with theOptimates, although his brotherLucius Cassius supported Caesar.[27] Cassius left Italy shortly after Caesar crossed theRubicon. He met Pompey inGreece, and was appointed to command part of his fleet.
In 48 BC, Cassius sailed his ships toSicily, where he attacked and burned a large part of Caesar's navy.[28] He then proceeded to harass ships off theItalian coast. News of Pompey's defeat at theBattle of Pharsalus caused Cassius to head for theHellespont, with hopes of allying with the king ofPontus,Pharnaces II. Cassius was overtaken by Caesar en route, and was forced to surrender unconditionally.[29]
Caesar made Cassius alegate, employing him in theAlexandrian 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 againstCato andScipio inAfrica, choosing instead to retire to Rome.
Cassius spent the next two years in office, and apparently tightened his friendship withCicero.[30] In 44 BC, he becamepraetor peregrinus with the promise of theSyrian province for the ensuing year. The appointment of his junior and brother-in-law,Marcus Brutus, aspraetor urbanus deeply offended him.[31]
Although Cassius was "the moving spirit" in the plot against Caesar, winning over the chief assassins to the cause oftyrannicide, Brutus became their leader.[32] On theIdes of March, 44 BC, Cassius urged on his fellow liberators and struck Caesar in the chest. Though they succeeded inassassinating Caesar, the celebration was short-lived, asMark 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.[33] According to some accounts, Cassius had wanted to kill Antony at the same time as Caesar, but Brutus dissuaded him.[34]
Cassius' 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 onPublius Cornelius Dolabella with 12legions. 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 commitsuicide. Cassius was now secure enough to march onEgypt, but on the formation of theSecond Triumvirate, Brutus requested his assistance. Cassius quickly joined Brutus inSmyrna with most of his army, leaving his nephew behind to govern Syria as well.
The conspirators decided to attack the triumvirate's allies inAsia. Cassius set upon and sackedRhodes in 43 BC, while Brutus did the same toLycia. They regrouped the following year inSardis, where their armies proclaimed themimperator. They crossed theHellespont, marched throughThrace, and encamped nearPhilippi inMacedon. Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian (later known asAugustus) 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 theBattle of Philippi. Brutus was successful against Octavian, and took his camp. Cassius, however, was defeated and overrun by Mark Antony and, unaware of Brutus' victory, ordered his freeman Pindarus to help him kill himself. Pindarus fled afterwards and Cassius' head was found severed from his body.[35] He was mourned by Brutus as "the Last of the Romans" and buried inThassos.[2]
"Among that select band of philosophers who have managed to change the world," writesDavid Sedley, "it would be hard to find a pair with a higher public profile than Brutus and Cassius – brothers-in-law, fellow-assassins, andShakespearian heroes," adding that "it may not even be widely known that theywere philosophers."[36]
Like Brutus, whoseStoic proclivities are widely assumed but who is more accurately described as anAntiochean Platonist, Cassius exercised a long and serious interest in philosophy. His early philosophical commitments are hazy, thoughD.R. Shackleton Bailey thought that a remark by Cicero[37] indicates a youthful adherence to theAcademy.[38] Sometime between 48 and 45 BC, however, Cassius famously converted to the school of thought founded byEpicurus. 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.[39]Arnaldo Momigliano called Cassius' conversion a "conspicuous date in the history of RomanEpicureanism," a choice made not to enjoy the pleasures of theGarden, but to provide a philosophical justification for assassinating a tyrant.[40]
Cicero associates Cassius's new Epicureanism with a willingness to seek peace in the aftermath of thecivil war between Caesar and Pompeius.[41]Miriam Griffin dates his conversion to as early as 48 BC, after he had fought on the side of Pompeius at theBattle of Pharsalus but decided to come home instead of joining the last holdouts of thecivil war inAfrica.[42] Momigliano placed it in 46 BC, based on a letter by Cicero to Cassius dated January 45.[43] Shackleton Bailey points to a date of two or three years earlier.[44]
The dating bears on, but is not essential to, the question of whether Cassius justified the murder of Caesar on Epicurean grounds. Griffin argues that his intellectual pursuits, like those of other Romans, may be entirely removed from any practical application in the realm of politics.[45] Romans of the Late Republic who can be identified as Epicureans are more often found among the supporters of Caesar, and often literally in his camp. Momigliano argued, however, that many of those who opposed Caesar's dictatorship bore no personal animus toward him, andRepublicanism was more congenial to the Epicurean way of life thandictatorship. The Roman concept oflibertas had been integrated intoGreek philosophical studies, and though Epicurus' theory of the political governance admitted various forms of government based on consent, including but not limited todemocracy, a tyrannical state was regarded by Roman Epicureans as incompatible with thehighest good of pleasure, defined as freedom from pain. Tyranny also threatened the Epicurean value ofparrhesia (παρρησία), "truthful speaking," and the movement towarddeifying Caesar offended Epicurean belief in abstract gods who lead an ideal existence removed from mortal affairs.[46]
Momigliano saw Cassius as moving from an initial Epicurean orthodoxy, which emphasised disinterest in matters not of vice and virtue, anddetachment, to a "heroic Epicureanism."[47] For Cassius, virtue was active. In a letter to Cicero, he wrote:
I hope that people will understand that for all, cruelty exists in proportion to hatred, and goodness and clemency in proportion to love, and evil men most seek out and crave the things which accrue to good men. It's hard to persuade people that ‘the good is desirable for its own sake'; but it's both true and creditable that pleasure and tranquility are obtained by virtue, justice, and the good. Epicurus himself, from whom all yourCatii andAmafinii[48] take their leave as poor interpreters of his words, says ‘there is no living pleasantly without living a good and just life.'[49]
Sedley agrees that the conversion of Cassius should be dated to 48, when Cassius stopped resisting Caesar, and finds it unlikely that Epicureanism was a sufficient or primary motivation for his later decision to take violent action against the dictator. Rather, Cassius would have had to reconcile his intention with his philosophical views. Cicero provides evidence[50] that Epicureans recognized circumstances when direct action was justified in a political crisis. In the quotation above, Cassius explicitly rejects the idea that morality is good to be chosen for its own sake; morality, as a means of achieving pleasure andataraxia, is not inherently superior to the removal of political anxieties.[51]
The inconsistencies between traditional Epicureanism and an active approach to securing freedom ultimately could not be resolved, and during theEmpire, the philosophy of political opposition tended to be Stoic. This circumstance, Momigliano argues, helps explain why historians of the Imperial era found Cassius more difficult to understand than Brutus, and less admirable.[47]
InDante'sInferno (Canto XXXIV), Cassius is one of three people deemedsinful enough to be chewed in one of the three mouths ofSatan, in the very centre ofHell, for all eternity, as a punishment for killingJulius Caesar. The other two areBrutus, his fellow conspirator, andJudas Iscariot, theBiblical betrayer ofJesus. It is unknown why the third ringleader of the conspiracy to kill Caesar,Decimus Brutus, was not also shown this deep in Hell.
Cassius also plays a major role inShakespeare's playJulius Caesar (I. ii. 190–195) as the leader of the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar. Caesar distrusts him, and states, "Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous." In one of the final scenes of the play, Cassius mentions to one of his subordinates that the day, October 3, is his birthday, and dies shortly afterwards.
...at this juncture Decimus Brutus, surnamed Albinus, who was so trusted by Caesar that he was entered in his will as his second heir, but was partner in the conspiracy of the other Brutus and Cassius, fearing that if Caesar should elude that day, their undertaking would become known, ridiculed the seers and chided Caesar for laying himself open to malicious charges on the part of the senators...
More than sixty joined the conspiracy against [Caesar], led by Gaius Cassius and Marcus and Decimus Brutus.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cassius s.v. 3. Gaius Cassius Longinus".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 461.
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