A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

CASSANDRA.
Just. xii.-xv.; Arrian, Anab. vii. 27; Paus. i. 25,
26, x. 34; Droysen, Gesch. der Nachf. Alexanders; Thirlwall's Greece, vol. vii.) It will have
appeared from the above account that there was no
act, however cruel and atrocious, from which Cassander ever shrunk where the objects he had in
view required it; and yet this man of blood, this
ruthless and unscrupulous murderer, was at the
same time a man of refinement and of cultivated
literary tastes,-one who could feel the beauties
of Homer, and who knew his poems by heart.
(Caryst. ap. Athen. xiv. p. 620, b.) For a sketch
of his character, eloquently drawn, see Droysen,
pp. 256, 257. The head on the obverse of the
annexed coin of Cassander is that of Hercules.
10e
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2. A Corinthian, who with his countryman
Agathynus, having unsuspiciously entered the
port of Leucas with four ships of Taurion's squadron, was treacherously seized there by the Illyrians, and sent to Scerdilaidas the Illyrian king.
The latter had thought himself wronged by
Philip V. of Macedonia, in not receiving the full
sum agreed on for his services in the social war,
and had sent out 15 cutters to pay himself by
piracy, B. c. 218. (Polyb. v. 95.)
3. An Aeginetan, who, at the Achaean congress, held at Megalopolis, B. c. 186, followed
Apollonides in dissuading the assembly from accepting the 120 talents proffered them as a gift
by king Eumenes II. [See p. 237, a.] He reminded the Achaeans, that the Aeginetans, in consequence of their adherence to the league, had
been conquered and enslaved by P. Sulpicius
(a. c. 208), and that their island, having been
given up by Rome to the Aetolians, had been sold
by them to Attalus, the father of Eumenes. He
called on Eumenes to shew his good-will to the
Achaeans rather by the restoration of Aegina than
by gifts of money, and he urged the assembly not
to receive presents which would prevent their ever
attempting the deliverance of the Aeginetans.
The money of the king of Pergamus was refused
by the congress. (Polyb. xi. 6, xxiii. 7, 8; comp.
Liv. xxvii. 33; Plut. Arat. 34.)
4. An officer in the service of Philip V. of
Macedon, whom the king, exasperated by the
Romans calling on him to give up Aenus and Maroneia in Thrace, employed as his chief instrument in the cruel massacre of the Maronites, B. c.
185. Being desired by the Romans to send Cassander to Rome for examination before the senate
on the subject of the massacre, he caused him to
be poisoned on his way, in Epeirus, to prevent any
untoward revelations. (Polyb. xxiii. 13, 14;
Liv. xxxix. 27, 34.) [E. E.]
CASSANDRA (Kao-oaa'pa), also called Alexandra (Paus. iii. 19. ~ 5, 26. ~ 3), was the fairest
among the daughters of Priam and Hecabe. There
are two points in her story which have furnished
the ancient poets with ample materials to dilate
upon. The first is her prophetic power, concerning
which we have the following traditions: Cassandra

CASSIA GENS. 621
and Hellenus, when yet children, were left by
their parents in the sanctuary of the Thymbraean
Apollo. The next morning they were found entwined by serpents, which were occupied with
purifying the children's ears, so as to render them
capable of understanding the divine sounds of
nature and the voices of birds, and of thereby
learning the future. (Tzetz. Argum. ad Lycoph.;
Eustath. ad Horn. p. 663.) After Cassandra had
grown up, she once again spent a night in the
temple of the god. He attempted to surprise her,
but as she resisted him, he punished her by causing her prophecies, though true, to be disbelieved
by men. (Hygin. Fab. 93.) According to another
version, Apollo initiated her in the art of prophecy
on condition of her yielding to his desires. The
maiden promised to comply with his wishes, but did
not keep her word, and the god then ordained that
no one should believe her prophecies. (Aeschyl.
Agamn. 1207; Apollod. iii. 12. ~ 5; Serv. ad Aen.
ii. 247.) This misfortune is the cause of the tragic
part which Cassandra acts during the Trojan war:
she continually announces the calamities which
are coming, without any one giving heed to what
she says; and even Priam himself looks upon her
as a mad woman, and has her shut up and guarded..
(Tzetz. 1. c.; Lycoph. 350; Serv. ad Aen.ii. 246,)
It should, however, be remarked, that Homer
knows nothing of the confinement of Cassandra,
and in the Iliad she appears perfectly free. (II.
xxiv. 700; comp. Od. xi. 421, &c.) During the
war Othryoneus of Cabesus sued for her hand, but
was slain by Idomeneus (II. xiii. 363); afterwards
Coroebus did the same, but he was killed in the
taking of Troy. (Paus. x. 27. ~ 1; Virg. Aen. ii.
344, 425.)
The second point in her history is her fate at
and after the taking of Troy. She fled into the
sanctuary of Athena, and embraced the statue of
the goddess as a suppliant. But Ajax, the son of
Oileus, tore her away from the temple, and according to some accounts, even ravished her in the
sanctuary. (Strab. vi. p. 264; comp. AJAX.)
When the Greeks divided the booty of Troy, Cassandra was given to Agamemnon, who took her
with him to Mycenae. Here she was killed by
Clytaemnestra, and Aegisthus put to death her
children by Agamemnon, Teledamus, and Pelops.
(Aeschyl. Agam. 1260; Paus. ii. 16. ~ 5; Hom.
II. xiii. 365, xxiv. 699; Od. xi. 420.) She had
a statue at Amyclae, and a temple with a statue at
Leuctra in Laconia. (Paus. iii. 19. ~ 5, 26. ~ 3.)
Her tomb was either at Amyclae or Mycenae
(ii. 16. ~ 5), for the two towns disputed the possession of it.
There is another mythical heroine Cassandra,
who was a daughter of Iobates, king of Lycia.
(Schol. ad Homn. II. vi. 155; comp. BELLEROPHON.) [L. S.]
CA'SSIA GENS, originally patrician, afterwards plebeian. We have mention of only one
patrician of this gens, Sp. Cassius Viscellinus, consul in B. c. 502, and the proposer of the first
agrarian law, who was put to death by the patricians. As all the Cassii after his time are plebeians,
it is not improbable either that the patricians expelled them from their order, or that they abandoned it on account of the murder of Viscellinus.
The Cassia gens was reckoned one of the noblest
in Rome; and members of it are constantly mentioned under the empire as well as during the re