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

LONGINUS. LONGINUS. 803
16. Q. CASSIUS (LONGINUS) is mentioned with- 37; Plin. Ep. vii. 24; Pompon. de Orig. Juais,
out any cognomen; but as he is said to have been in Dig. 1. tit. 2. ~ 47.)
a legate of Q. Cassius Longinus [No. 15] in Spain Considerable controversy has arisen from Pomin B. C. 48, he was probably a son of the latter. ponius (I. c.) stating that C. Cassius Longinus was
He seems to be the same as the Q. Cassius-to whom consul in A. D. 30, whereas other authorities make
Antony gave Spain in B. c. 44. (Hirt. B. Alex. L. Cassius Longinus [No. 19] consul in that year.
52, 57; Cic. Philipp. iii. 10.) Hence, some writers suppose that C. Cassius and
17. L. CAssIUS LONGINUS, of unknown descent, L. Cassius were the same person, while others
probably the same as the L. Cassius whom Cicero maintain that they were both jurists, and that
names among the judges of Cluentius (pro Cluent. Pomponius has confounded them. Others, again,
38), was, along with Cicero, one of the competitors think that L. Cassius was consul suffectus in the
for the consulship for the year B. c. 63. At- the same year that C. Cassius was consul. It is, howtime he was considered to be rather deficient in ever, more probable that Pomponius has made a
abilities than to have any evil intentions; but a mistake. (See Reimarus, ad Dion. Cass. lix. 29.)
*few months afterwards he was found to be one of C. Cassius wrote ten books on the civil law (LiCatiline's conspirators, and the proposer of the briJuris Civilis), and Commentaries on Vitellius
most dreadful measures. He undertook to set the and Urseius Ferox, which are quoted in the Digest.
city on fire; and he also carried on the negotiation Cassius was a follower of the school of Masurius
with the ambassadors of the Allobroges, but was Sabinus and Ateius Capito; and as he reduced
prudent enough not to give them any written do- their principles to a more scientific form, the adhecument under his seal, as the others had done. He rents of this school received afterwards the name of
left Rome before the ambassadors, and accordingly Cassiani. The characteristics of this school are
escaped the fate of his comrades. He was con- given at length under CAPITO, P. 601. (Compare
demned to death in his absence, but whether he Steenwinkel, Dissert. de C. Cassio Longino JCto.
was apprehended and executed afterwards we do Lugd. Bat. 1778.)
not know..(Ascon. in Tog. Cand. p. 82, ed. Orelli; LONGI'NUS, CORNE'LIUS, the author of
Appian, B. C. ii. 4; Sail. Cat. 17, 44, 50; Cic. two epigrams in the Greek Anthology, one of which
Cat. iii. 4, 6, 7, pro Sull. 13, 19.) is imitated from the thirteenth epigram of Leonidas
18. L. CAssIUS LONGINUS, consul, A.D. 30, of Tarentum (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. p. 200; Jacobs,
was married by Tiberius to Drusilla, the daughter Anth. Graec. vol. ii. p. 184). Nothing is known
of Germanicus; but her brother Caligula soon after- of him, except his name, and even that is doubtful.
wards carried her away from her husband's house, His first epigram, which, in the Planudean Anthoand openly lived, with her as if she were his wife. logy, bears the name as above given, is entitled in
[DRUSILLA, No-. 2.- (Tac. Ann. vi. 15, 45; Suet. the Vatican MS. KopvAiov A6ldyyov; the second is
Cal. 24.) Cassius was proconsul in Asia in A. D. entitled in the Planudean KopvvqAtov simply, and
40, and was commanded by WCaigula to be brought is not found in the Vatican. (Jacobs, Anth. Grae.
in chains to Rome, because an oracle had warned vol. xiii. p. 912.) [P. S.]
the emperor to beware of a Cassius. Caligula LONGI'NUS, DIONY'SIUS CA'SSIUS
thought that the oracle must have had reference. to (ALovu',0os KdorrLos AoyyZvos), a very distinguished
Cassius Longinus, because he was descended from Greek philosopher of the third century of our era.
the great republican family, whereas it really meant His original name seems to have been Dionysius;
Cassius Chaerea. [CHAEREA ] (Suet. Cal. 57; but, either because he entered into the relation of
Dion Cass. lix. 29, who erroneously calls him client to some Cassius Longinus, or because his
Caius, confounding him with No. 19.) ancestors had received the Roman franchise,
19. C. CASSIUS LONGINUS, the celebrated jurist, through the influence of some Cassius Longinus, he
was governor of Syria, A. D. 50, in the reign of bore the name of Dionysiis Longinus, Cassius
Claudius, and conducted to the Euphrates Meher- Longinus, or in the complete form given at the
dates, whom the Parthians had desired to have as head of this article. He was born about A. D. 213,
their king. Though there was no war at that time, and was killed in A. D. 273, at the age of sixty.
Cassius endeavoured, by introducing stricter disci- His native place is uncertain; some say that he
pline into the army and keeping the troops well was born at Palmyra, and others call him a Syrian
trained, to maintain the. high reputation which his or a native of Emesa, The belief that he was of
family enjoyed in the province. [See above, No. Syrian origin-is only an inference from the fact that
11.] On his return to Rome he was regarded as his mother was a Syrian woman, and from an ob*one of the leading men in the state, and possessed scure passage in Vopiscus (Aurelian. 30), from
great influence both by the integrity of his charac- which it may be inferred that he was conversant
ter and his ample fortune. On these accounts he with the Syriac language. But it is clear that
became an object of suspicion to the emperor Nero, these circumstances prove nothing, for he may have
who imputed to him as a crime that, among his learned the Syriac language either from his mother
ancestral images, he had a statue of Cassius, the or during his subsequent residence at Palmyra.
murderer of Caesar, and accordingly required the There is more ground for believing that Longinus
senate to pronounce a sentence of banishment was born at Athens, for Suidas (s. v. pog'VTWV)
against him, A. D. 66. This order was, of course, states that Phronto of Emesa, the uncle of Lonobeyed, and Cassius was removed to the island of ginus, taught rhetoric at Athens, and on his death
Sardinia, but was recalled from banishment by in that place left behind him Longinus, the son of
Vespasian. At the time of his banishment he is his sister. It would seem that this Phronto took
said by Suetonius to have been blind. The mother especial care of the education of his nephew, and
of Cassius was a daughter of Tubero, the jurist on his death-bed he instituted him as his heir. In
[TUBERO], and she was a granddaughter of the the preface to his work irepl reAovs, which is prejurist Serv. Sulpicius. (Tac. Ann. xii. 11, 12, xiii. served in Porphyrius's life of Plotinus (p. 127),
41, 48, xiv. 43, xv. 52, xvi. 7, 9, 22; Suet. Ner. Longinus himself relates that from his early age he
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