Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/639

Rh CASSANDRA. JiisL xii.-XY. ; Arrian, Anab. vii. 27; Pans. i. 2.5, 26, X. 34 ; Droysen, Gesch. der Nachf. Aleauti- ders ; ThirhvalPs Greece., vol. vii.) It will have appeared from the above account that there was no act, however cruel and atrocious, from which Cas- sander 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. At/ten. xiv. p. 620, b.) For a sketch of his character, eloquently drawn, see Droysen, pp. 2.56, 257. The head on the obverse of the annexed coin of Cassander is that of Hercules. CASSIA GENS. 621 2. A Corinthian, who with his countryman Agathynus, having unsuspiciously entered the port of Leucas with four ships of Taurion's squa- dron, was treacherously seized there by the Illy- rians, 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 con- gress, held at Megalopolis, b. c. 186, followed Apollonides in dissuading the assembly from ac- cepting the 120 talents proffered them as a gift by king Eumenes II. [See p. 237, a.] He re- minded the Achaeans, that the Aeginetans, in con- sequence of their adherence to the league, had beon conquered and enslaved by P. Sulpicius (b. 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 ofticer in the service of Philip V. of Macedon, whom the king, exasperated by the Romans calling on him to give up Aenus and Ma- roneia in Thrace, employed as his chief instru- ment in the cruel massacre of the Maronites, b. c. 185. Being desired by the Romans to send Cas- sander 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 {KacradySpa), hIso called Alex- andra (Pans. 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 and Hcllenu'», when yet children, were left by their parents in the sanctuary of the Thymbraean Apollo, The next morning they were found en- twined 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. (Txetz. Argum. ad Li/coph.; 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 caus- ing iier prophecies, though true, to be disbelieved by men. (Hygin. Fah.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. Acjam. 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. I. c. ; Lycoph. 350 ; Serv. ad Aen.n. 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 Idoraeneus (//. 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 ac- cording to some accounts, even ravished her in the stinctuary. (Strab. vi. p. 264 ; comp. Ajax.) When the Greeks divided the booty of Troy, Cas- sandra 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. A</am. 1260; Paus. ii. 16. § 5 ; Hom. //. 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 pos- session of it. There is another mythical heroine Cassandra, who was a daughter of lobates, king of Lycia. (Schol. ad Hum. II. vi. 155; comp. Bkllkro- PHON.) [L. S.l CA'SSIA GENS, originally patrician, after- wards plebeian. We have mention of only one patrician of this gens, Sp. Cassius Viscellinus, con- sul in B. c. 502, and the proposer of the first agrarian law, who was put to death by the patri- cians. As all the Cassii after his time are plebeians, it is not improbable either that the patricians ex- pelled them from their order, or that they aban- doned 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 men- tioned under the empire as well as during the re-