Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/644

Rh 626 CASSIUS. hands of the king of Pontus, though on -what oc- casion is not mentioned, but was restored to free- dom at the end of the first Mithridatic war. (Appian, MUhr. 11, 17, 24, 112.) 3. L. Cassius, tribune of the plebs, b. c. 89, at the time of the Marsic war, when the value of landed property was depreciated, and the quantity of money in circulation was comparatively small. Debtors were thus unable to pay the money they owed, and as the praetor A. Sempronius Asellio decided against the debtors in accordance with the old laws, the people became exasperated, and L. Cassius excited them still more against him, so that he was at length murdered by the people while offering a sacrifice in the forum. (Val. Max. ix. 7. § 4 ; comp. Liv, Epit. 74.) 4. Q. Cassius, legate of Q. Cassius Longinus in Spain in b. c. 48, and probably the same to whom Antony gave Spain at the division of the provinces at the end of B. c. 44. (Ilirt. B. Alex. 52, 57; Cic. PhUipp. iii. 10.) CA'SSIUS (Ka«ro-jos), a Sceptic philosopher, who wrote against Zeno the Stoic. (Diog. llaert. vii. 32, 34 ; Galen, Hi/pothes. Empir. 3.) [L. S.] CA'SSIUS, AGRIPPA, is called a most learned writer; He lived about a. d. 132, in the reign of the emperor Hadrian, and wrote a very accurate refutation of the heresies of Basilidcs the Gnostic and his son Isidorus. A fragment of this work is preserved in Eusebius. {Hist. lu^dcs. iv. 7; comp. Hieron. Script. Eccles. 2y Indie. Ilaeres, 2 ; Theo- doret, De Haeret. Fab. i. 4.) [L. S.] CA'SSIUS APRONIA'NUS. [Aproma- Nus, No. 2.] CA'SSIUS ASCLEPIO'DOTUS. [A.scLE- PIODOTUS.] CA'SSIUS, AVI'DIUS, one of the most able and successful among the generals of M. Aurelius, was a native of Cyrrhus in Syria, son of a certain Heliodorus, who in consequence of his eminence as a rhetorician had risen to be praefect of Egypt While Verus was abandoning himself to all man- ner of profligacy at Antioch, the war against the Parthians was vigorously prosecuted by Cassius, who closed a most glorious campaign by the capture of Seleuceia and Ctesiphon. He subsequently quelled a formidable insurrection in Egypt, orga- nized by a tribe of marauders who dwelt among the fens ; and having been appointed governor of nil the Eastern provinces, discharged his trust for several years with fidelity and firmness. The history of his rebellion and his miserable death are narrated under 'M. Aurelius. If we can believe in the authenticity of the documents produced by Gallicanus, the conduct of Cassius excited the sus- picion of Verus at a very early period, but Anto- ninus refused to listen to the representations of his colleague, ascribing them doubtless, and with good cause, to jealousy. (In addition to the notices contained in Dion Cassius Ixxi. 2, 21, &c., we have a formal biography from the pen of one of the Au- gustan historians, named Vulcatius Gallicanus, but the style of this production is not such as to in- spire much confidence in its author.) [W. R.] CA'SSIUS BARBA. [Barba.] CA'SSIUS BETILLI'NUS. [Bassus, Be- TILIKNUS.] CA'SSIUS CHAEREA. [Chaerea.] CA'SSIUS CLEMENS. [Clemens.] CA'SSIUS DION. [Dion Cassius.] CA SSIUS, DION Y'SIUS {Aioviaios Kdaaio^), CASSIUS. a native of Utica, lived about b. c. 40. He trans- lated the great work of the Carthaginian Mago on agriculture from the Punic into Greek, but in such a manner that he condensed the twenty-eight books of the original into twenty, although he made nu- merous additions to it from the best Greek writers on agriculture. He dedicated this work to the praetor Sextilius. Diophanes of Bithynia, again, made a useful abridgement of the work in six books, which he dedicated to king Deiotarus. The work of Dionysius Cassius is mentioned among those used by Cassianus Bassus in compiling the Geopo- nica at the command of Constantinus Porphyroge- neta. (Varro, De Be Riist. i. 1 ; Columella, i. 1 ; Athen. xiv. p, 648 ; Plin. H. N. xx. 44; Geoponica, i. 11.) Cassius 'also wrote a work pi^orofiiKa. (Schol. ad Nicand. 520; Steph. Byz. s.v. 'iTiiiaj.) With the exception of the extracts in the Geopo- nica, the works of Cassius have perished. [L. S.J CA'SSIUS lATROSOPHISTA, or CA'SSIUS FELIX, the author of a little Greek medical work entitled 'larpiKal 'Airopiai koI UpoSKi^fiaTa ^vcriKa, Quaestiones Medicae et Problemata Naturalia, No- thing is known of the events of his life, nor is it possible to identify him with certainty with any of the individuals of this name. With respect to his date, it can only be said that he quotes Asclepiades, who lived in the first century B. c, and that he is generally supposed to have lived himself in the first century after Christ. His title latrosophista is explained in the Did. of Ant. His work con- sists of eighty-four questions on medical and physi- cal subjects, with the solutions, and contains ranch curious matter. It was first published in Greek at Paris, 1541, r2mo,, and translated into Latin the same year by Hadrianus Junius, Paris, 4to. A Greek and Latin edition appeared in 1653, 4to. Lips., together with the work of Theophylactiis Simoiatta ; and the Greek text alone is inserted in the first volume of Ideler's Physici et Medici Graeci Minores., Berol. 1841, 8vo. The work is also to be found in various old editions of Aristotle. (Fabric. BVA. Grace, vol. ii. p. 169, ed. vet.; Chou- lant, Handbuch der Bucherkunde fur die Aeltere Medicin.) [W. A. G.] CA'SSIUS LONGUS. [Longus.] CA'SSIUS PARMENSIS, so called, it would appear, from Parma, his birth-place, is in most works upon Roman literature styled C. Cassius Severus Parmensis, but erroneously, since there is no authority whatsoever for assigning the praeno- men of Caius or the cognomen of Severus to this writer. Horace (Serm. i. 10. 61), when censuring care- less and rapid compositions, illustrates his observa- tions, by referring to a Cassius Einiscus, whom he compares to a river in flood rolling down a turbid torrent, and adds, that the story ran that this poet, his works, and book-boxes, were all consigned to- gether to the flames. Here Aero, Porphyrio, and the Scholiast of Cruquius agree in expressly declar- ing that the person spoken of is Cassius Parmensisy and the latter makes mention of a tragedy by him, called Thyestes, as still extant. Again, Horace {Ep. i. 4. 3), when writing to Albius, who is generally believed to be Tibullus, questions him with regard to his occupations, and asks whether he is writing anything " quod Cassii Parmensis opuscula vincat." Here the old com- mentators quoted above again agree in asserting that this Cassius served as tribune of the soldiers