Gaius Cassius Longinus
Gaius Cassius Longinus | |
---|---|
Born | c. 86 BC[2] |
Died | 3 October 42 BC (aged 44) |
Cause of death | Suicide |
Resting place | Thasos, Greece |
Nationality | Roman |
Other names | Last of the Romans[3] |
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 (
Cassius was elected as
He followed the teachings of the philosopher
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.[9] He studied philosophy at Rhodes under Archelaus of Rhodes and became fluent in Greek.[10] 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.[11]
Carrhae and Syria
In 54 BC, Cassius joined Marcus Licinius Crassus in his eastern campaign against the Parthian Empire. In 53 BC, Crassus suffered a decisive defeat at the Battle of Carrhae in Northern-Mesopotamia losing two-thirds of his army. Cassius led the remaining troops' retreat back into Syria, and organised an effective defence force for the province. Based on Plutarch's account, the defeat at Carrhae could have been avoided had Crassus acted as Cassius had advised. 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 "very properly" refused. The Parthians also considered Cassius as equal to Crassus in authority, and superior to him in skill.[12]
In 51 BC, Cassius was able to ambush and defeat an invading Parthian army under the command of prince Pacorus and general Osaces. 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 harrying 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 the Euphrates.[13]
Civil war
Cassius returned to Rome in 50 BC, when
In 48 BC, Cassius sailed his ships to
Caesar made Cassius a
Cassius spent the next two years in office, and apparently tightened his friendship with
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.[18] 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.[19] According to some accounts, Cassius had wanted to kill Antony at the same time as Caesar, but Brutus dissuaded him.[20]
Post-assassination
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 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
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."[22]
Like Brutus, whose
Cicero associates Cassius's new Epicureanism with a willingness to seek peace in the aftermath of the
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.
Momigliano saw Cassius as moving from an initial Epicurean orthodoxy, which emphasised disinterest in matters not of vice and virtue, and detachment, to a "heroic Epicureanism."[33] 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 your Catii and Amafinii[34] take their leave as poor interpreters of his words, says ‘there is no living pleasantly without living a good and just life.'[35]
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[36] 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 and ataraxia, is not inherently superior to the removal of political anxieties.[37]
The inconsistencies between traditional Epicureanism and an active approach to securing freedom ultimately could not be resolved, and during the Empire, 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.[33]
Cultural depictions
In
Cassius also plays a major role in Shakespeare's play Julius 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.
See also
- Ariobarzanes III
Notes
- ^ Nodelman, pp. 57–59.
- ISBN 978-3-11-066341-9.
- ^ a b Plutarch, Life of Brutus, 44.2.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Plutarch. "Life of Caesar". University of Chicago. p. 595.
...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...
- ^ Suetonius (121). "De Vita Caesarum" [The Twelve Casesars]. University of Chicago. p. 107. Archived from the original on 2012-05-30.
More than sixty joined the conspiracy against [Caesar], led by Gaius Cassius and Marcus and Decimus Brutus.
- ^ Dante, Inferno: Canto XXXIV
- JSTOR 478665. "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."
- ^ Plutarch, Brutus, 9.1-4
- ^ Appian, Civil Wars, 4.67.
- ^ Plutarch, Brutus, 14.4
- ISBN 9780198755142.
- ^ Gareth C. Sampson, The defeat of Rome, Crassus' Carrhae & the invasion of the East, p.159
- ^ Caesar, Civil War, iii.101.
- ^ However, both Suetonius (Caesar, 63 Archived 2012-05-30 at archive.today) and Cassius Dio (Roman History, 42.6) say that it was Lucius Cassius who surrendered to Caesar at the Hellespont.
- ^ 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).
- ^ Chisholm 1911.
- 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.
- ^ For instance, Cicero, Ad Fam., xii.3.1.
- ^ Velleius Paterculus, 2.58.5; Plutarch, Brutus, 18.2-6.
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Brutus, 43.5-6.
- ^ David Sedley, "The Ethics of Brutus and Cassius," Journal of Roman Studies 87 (1997) 41–53.
- ^ Cicero, Ad familiares xv.16.3.
- ^ As cited by Miriam Griffin, "Philosophy, Politics, and Politicians at Rome," in Philosophia togata: Essays on Philosophy and Roman Society (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989).
- ^ 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.
- ^ Momigliano, Journal of Roman Studies 31 (1941), p. 151.
- ^ Miriam Griffin, "The Intellectual Developments of the Ciceronian Age," in The Cambridge Ancient History (Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 726 online.
- ^ Spe pacis et odio civilis sanguinis ("with a hope of peace and a hatred of shedding blood in civil war"), Cicero, Ad fam. xv.15.1; Miriam Griffin, "Philosophy, Politics, and Politicians at Rome," in Philosophia togata (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989).
- ^ For a quotation of the Epicurean passage in this letter, see article on the philosopher Catius.
- ), pointing to evidence he believed Momigliano had overlooked.
- ^ Miriam Griffin, "Philosophy, Politics, and Politicians at Rome," in Philosophia togata (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), particularly citing Plutarch, Caesar 66.2 on a lack of philosophical justification for killing Caesar: Cassius is said to commit the act despite his devotion to Epicurus.
- ^ Arnaldo Momigliano, Journal of Roman Studies 31 (1941), pp. 151–157. Summary of Cassius's Epicureanism also in David Sedley, "The Ethics of Brutus and Cassius," Journal of Roman Studies 87 (1997), p. 41.
- ^ a b Momigliano, Journal of Roman Studies 31 (1941), p. 157.
- ^ Catius and Amafinius were Epicurean philosophers known for their popularizing approach and criticized by Cicero for their dumbed-down prose style.
- ^ Ad familiares xv.19; Shackleton Bailey's Latin text of this letter is available online.
- ^ Cicero, De republica 1.10.
- ^ David Sedley, "The Ethics of Brutus and Cassius," Journal of Roman Studies 87 (1997), pp. 41 and 46–47.
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cassius s.v. 3. Gaius Cassius Longinus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 461. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Nodelman, Sheldon (1987). "The Portrait of Brutus the Tyrannicide". In Jiří Frel; Arthur Houghton & Marion True (eds.). Ancient Portraits in the J. Paul Getty Museum: Volume 1. Occasional Papers on Antiquities. Vol. 4. Malibu, CA, US: J. Paul Getty Museum. pp. 41–86. ISBN 0-89236-071-2.
Further reading
- Cassius Dio Cocceianus (1987). The Roman History: The Reign of Augustus. ISBN 9780140444483.
- Cicero, Marcus Tullius (1986). Selected Letters. D. R. H. Shackleton Bailey, trans. London: Penguin Books.
- Gowing, Alain M. (1990). "Appian and Cassius' Speech Before Philippi ('Bella Civilia' 4.90–100)". Phoenix. 44 (2): 158–181. JSTOR 1088329.
- Plutarch (1972). Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives. Rex Warner, trans. New York: Penguin Books.
- Plutarch (1965). Maker's of Rome: Nine Lives by Plutarch. Ian Scott-Kilvert, trans. London: Penguin Books.
External links
- "Cassius Longinus" in the Jewish Encyclopedia
- Letters to and from Cassius from Cicero's Letters to Friends
- "Life of Brutus"—from Plutarch's Parallel Lives