Cassini, Alexandre Henri Gabriel de, a descendant of the preceding, was born in 1781, his father being director of the Paris observatory. He had no taste for the pursuits in which his ancestors had distinguished themselves, but devoted himself to botany, and made extensive researches in the department of synantherous plants. His excessive multiplication of genera prevented his nomenclature from being generally followed. He was the author of numerous botanical articles in the Journal de Physique, the principal of which he collected and published under the title of "Opuscules Phytologiques:" Paris, 1826. He was also one of the most active editors of the Magasin Encyclopédique, and of the Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles. Having commenced the study of law in 1804, he was in 1810 appointed juge au tribunal de première instance, afterwards became a member of the court of cassation, and in 1830 was admitted to the chamber of peers. He died of cholera in 1832, having been a member of the Academy of Sciences since 1827.—J. D. E.
CASSIODORUS, Magnus Aurelius, a distinguished statesman, historian, and man of letters, who enjoyed the confidence of Theodoric the Great, and was for a long series of years at the head of the government of the Ostrogothic kingdom, was born at Sylacium in Bruttium, about a.d. 468, his father being the representative of an ancient and wealthy Roman family. At the age of seventy he retired to the monastery of Viviers, in Calabria, where he died, almost a centenarian, leaving the following works, a complete edition of which was published by D. Garet at Rouen in 1679:—"Chronicon;" "De artibus ac disciplinis Liberalium Literarum;" "De Institutione Divinarum Literarum;" a few other treatises, and twelve books of his letters (state papers), written in accordance with the instructions of Theodoric and his successors.—J. S., G.
CASSIUS, the name of one of the most illustrious of the Roman gentes, originally patrician, afterwards plebeian. The more distinguished members of this gens follow in chronological order:—
Cassius Viscellinus, Spurius, thrice consul; first in 502 b.c., when he defeated the Sabines at Cures; again in 493, when he concluded a treaty with the Latins; and lastly in 486, when he made a league with the Hernicans, and carried the first agrarian law, the lex Cassia, in spite of the bitter opposition of the patrician order, of which he was a member. The provisions of this law were never carried into execution; for its author was accused of treason by the patricians, and condemned to death immediately on resigning his office in 485 b.c.
Cassius Longinus, Caius, elected consul with P. L. Crassus in 171 b.c., obtained as his province Italy and Cisalpine Gaul. Desiring to engage in the war in Macedonia, he endeavoured to penetrate thither through Illyricum, but, being prohibited after a time by the senate, he desisted and returned to Italy. In 170 b.c. he was accused by ambassadors from various tribes before the senate for his conduct during the war, but escaped with a reproof. When censor in 152 b.c., along with his colleague Valerius Messala, he erected a theatre. It was demolished by the senate at the instance of Scipio Nasica, on the plea of its injuriousness to public morals, the date of his death is uncertain.
Cassius Longinus Ravilla, Lucius, the son of Q. Cassius Longinus, a Roman of consular rank. In 137 b.c., when tribune of the Plebs, he passed the second lex tabellaria, extending the use of the ballot. In 127 b.c. he was elected consul along with Cornelius Cinna, and in 125 b.c. censor along with Cn. Servilius Cepio. In his judicial capacity he was noted for severity and uprightness.
Cassius Longinus, Lucius, consul along with C. Marius 107 b.c.; died that year fighting against the Tigurini. While prætor in 111 b.c., he went as ambassador to Numidia, and returned bringing with him the celebrated Jugurtha.
Cassius Longinus, Caius, one of the leaders of the conspiracy against Cæsar. Nothing is known of his history until the expedition of Crassus against the Parthians b.c. 53, when he acted as quæstor, and succeeded in rescuing about five hundred horse, the only remnant of the army that escaped destruction. He afterwards defeated the victorious Parthians when they laid siege to Antioch, and compelled them to abandon Syria. During the civil war between Cæsar and Pompey, Cassius attached himself to the aristocratic faction, and commanded the fleet of Pompey in the Hellespont. After the battle of Pharsalia b.c. 48, he fell in with Cæsar, who had only a single vessel with him, and might easily have taken him prisoner; but for reasons which have never been explained he at once obeyed the summons of the victorious general to surrender, and passed over to his side. History is silent concerning Cassius from this time until the period of the conspiracy against Cæsar. He was the mainspring of the plot, and was evidently actuated by strong personal as well as party dislike to the great dictator, and it was he who succeeded in drawing into the confederacy Brutus, whose sister Junia he had married. After the murder of Cæsar, Cassius was deprived of the command of Syria through the agency of Antony; and, on receiving this intelligence, he immediately collected an army and made himself master of Syria, Phœnicia, and Judea. But he was recalled to Europe by Brutus for the purpose of resisting the triumvirs.—(See Brutus.) At the battle of Philippi, which was fought against his advice, the left wing which he commanded was defeated by Antony, and thinking all was lost he committed suicide. He was certainly an able man, and one of the best generals of his age. But he was jealous and morose, and much better fitted for a conspirator than Brutus.—J. T.
Cassius Longinus, Quintus, first cousin of the preceding, went as quæstor of Pompey into Spain in 54 b.c., and became infamous in the province for rapacity and cruelty. By the year 49, when he was tribune of the Plebs, he had deserted the interests of Pompey, and espoused those of Cæsar, whom, on being expelled from Rome as a too zealous partisan, he accompanied into Spain. After the defeat of Afranius and Petreius, the legates of Pompey, Cassius received from Cæsar the governorship of Farther Spain. Escaping the twofold peril of a popular insurrection and a mutiny of the soldiery, he left the province in 47, but his ship sank, and he was lost in the mouth of the Iberus.—J. S., G.
Cassius Parmensis, Titus, so called from Parma his birthplace, a poet and one of the murderers of Cæsar, fought against the triumvirs, and after the defeat of Brutus and Cassius joined Pompey with a fleet off Sicily. He afterwards followed the fortunes of Antony. After the battle of Actium he went to Athens, where he was put to death by command of Octavian b.c. 30. Cassius was the author of two tragedies, "Thyestes" and "Brutus," and of some epigrams and other poetical pieces.
Cassius Longinus, Carus, a famous jurist, who flourished in the reigns of Claudius and Nero. He traced his descent on the mother's side to the lawyer Servius Sulpicius, and was connected on the other with the family of Cassius the conspirator. We hear of him first on occasion of his being commissioned as governor of Syria, to lead to the banks of the Euphrates, Meherdates, whom the Parthians had chosen as their king, a.d. 49. Peace prevailed during his tenure of office, and left more room for the display of his legal than his military talents. On his return to Rome he was regarded as an authority among her statesmen, and his aid was called for on various emergencies; but his growing reputation, wealth, and independence of character, brought upon him the enmity and persecution of a jealous court. The detection of Piso's conspiracy served to intensify the tyranny to which he at last fell a victim. After the death of Poppæa he was prohibited from attending her funeral—a sign, says Tacitus, of his approaching doom. There stood among his ancestral images a statue of C. Cassius, with the inscription "Dux Partium," graven on its pedestal. This inscription was made the ground of a capital charge, and by a decree of the senate he was exiled, as one of the "suspect" (a.d. 65), to the island of Sardinia. His name does not again appear in history; but we learn that he was in his old age recalled from banishment by Vespasian. He wrote ten books. "De Jure Civili," and his commentaries on Vitellius and Ferox are referred to in the Digest. In law he was an adherent of the school of Capito, and transmitted the name of Cassiani to those who followed in the same track.—J. N.
Cassius, Avidius, an able general of Marcus Aurelius, was a native of Cyrrhus in Syria. His father, Heliodorus, who was prefect of Egypt, enjoyed great reputation as a rhetorician. In the Parthian war, a.d. 162-165, Avidius served under Verus, and, after defeating the Parthians, took Seleucia and Ctesiphon. He also fought against the Sarmatians on the Danube. He was subsequently appointed governor of Syria, and in 170 suppressed an alarming insurrection of banditti. A few years after, a.d. 175, he took up arms against the emperor Marcus Aurelius, and proclaimed himself imperator in the East. He reigned only a few months, and was assassinated by two of his
