Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/817

Rh LONGINUS. 16. Q. Cassius (LoNGiNUs) is mentioned with- out siny cognomen ; but <us he is said to have been a legate of Q. Cassius Longinus [No. 15] in Spain in B. c. 48, he was probably a son of the latter. He seems to be the same as the Q. Cassius to whom Antony gave Spain in n. c. 44. (Hirt. B. Alex. 52, 57; Cic. Philipp. iii. 10.) 17. L. Cassius LoNGiNTJs,of unknown descent, probably the same as the L. Cassius whom Cicero names among the judges of Cluentius (pro Cliient. 38), was, along with Cicero, one of the competitors ifor the consulship for the year B. c. G3. At the time he was considered to be rather deficient in abilities than to have any evil intentions ; but a few months afterwards he was found to be one of Catiline's conspirators, and the proposer of the most dreadful measures. He undertook to set the city on fire ; and he also carried on the negotiation with the ambassadors of the Allobroges, but was prudent enough not to give them any written do- cument under his seal, as the others had done. He left Rome before the ambassadors, and accordingly escaped the fate of his comrades. He was con- demned to death in his absence, but whether he was apprehended and executed afterwards we do not know. (Ascon. in Tog. Cand. p. 82, ed. Orelli; Appian, li. C. ii. 4 ; Sail. Cat. 17, 44, 50 ; Cic. Cat iii. 4, 6, 7,/>ro Sail. 13, 19.) 18. L. Cassius Longinus, consul, a. d. 30, was married by Tiberius to Drusilla, the daughter of Germanicus ; but her brother Caligula soon after- wards carried her away from her hushand'a house, .ind openly lived with her as if she were his wife. [Drusilla, No. 2.] (Tac. Ann. vi. 15, 45 ; Suet. Cal. 24.) Cassius was proconsul in Asia in A. d. 40, and was commanded by Caligula to be brought in chains to Rome, because an oracle had warned the emperor to beware of a Cassius. Caligula thought that the oracle must have had reference to Cassius Longinus, because he was descended from the great republican family, whereas it really meant Cassius Chaerea. [Chakrea ] (Suet. Cat. 57 ; Dion Cass. lix. 29, who erroneously calls him Gains, confounding him with No. 19.) 19. C. Cassius Longinus, the celebrated jurist, was governor of Syria, a. d. 50, in the reign of Claudius, and conducted to the Euphrates Meher- dates, whom the Parthians had desired to have as their king. Though there was no war at that time, Cassius endeavoured, by introducing stricter disci- pline into the army and keeping the troops well trained, to maintain the high reputation which his family enjoyed in the province. [See above, No. 11.] On his retuni to Rome he was regarded as one of the leading men in the state, and possessed great influence both by the integrity of his charac- ter and his ample fortune. On these accounts he became an object of suspicion to the emperor Nero, who imputed to him as a crime that, among his .incestral images, he had a statue of Cassius, the murderer of Caesar, and accordingly required the senate to pronounce a sentence of banishment against him, a. u. GQ. This order was, of course, obeyed, and Cassius was removed to the island of Sardinia, but was recalled from banishment by Vespasian. At the time of his banishment he is said by Suetonius to have been blind. The mother of Cassius was a daughter of Tubero, the jurist [TuBERo], and she was a granddaughter of the jurist Serv. Sulpicius. (Tac. Ann. xii. 1 1, 12, xiii. 41, 48, xiv. 43, xv. 52, xvi. 7, 9, 22 ; Suet. Ner. LONGINUS. 803 37 ; Plin. Ep. vii. 24 ; Pompon, de Orig, Juris, in Dig. 1. tit. 2. §47.) Considerable controversy has arisen from Pom- ponins (/. c.) stating that C. Cassius Ijonginus was consul in A. D. 30, whereas other authorities make L. Cassius Longinus [No. 19] consul in that year. Hence, some writers suppose that C. Cassius and L. Cassius were the same person, while others maintain that they were both jurists, and that Pomponius has confounded them. Others, again, think that L. Cassius was consul suifectus in the same year that C. Cassius was consul. It is, how- ever, more probable that Pomponius has made a mistake. (See Reimarus, ad Dion. Cass. lix. 29.) C. Cassius wrote ten books on the civil law {Li- bri. Juris Civilis), and Commentaries on Vitellius and Urseius Ferox, which are quoted in the Digest. Cassius was a follower of the school of Masurius Sabinus and Ateius Capito ; and as he reduced their principles to a more scientific form, the adhe- rents of this school received afterwards the name of Cassiani. The characteristics of this school are given at length under Capito, p. 601. (Compare Steenwinkel, Dissert, de C. Cassia Lungino JCto. Lugd. Bat. 1778.) LONGI'NUS, CORNE'LIUS, the author of two epigrams in the Greek Anthology, one of which is imitated from the thirteenth epigram of Leonidas of Tarentum (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii, p. 200 ; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. ii. p. 184). Nothing is known of him, except his name, and even that is doubtful. His first epigram, which, in the Planudean Antho- logy, bears the name as above given, is entitled in the Vatican MS. KapurjAiou Aoyyov ; the second is entitled in the Planudean Kopvr)iov simply, and is not found in the Vatican. (Jacobs, Anth. Grace. vol. xiii. p. 912.) [P-S.] LONGI'NUS, DIONY'SIUS CA'SSIUS (Aiouvaios Kaaaios AoyyTvos), a very distinguished Greek philosopher of the third century of our era. His original name seems to have been Dionysius ; but, either because he entered into the relation of client to some ('assius Longinus, or because his ancestors had received the Roman franchise, through the influence of some Cassius Longinus, he bore the name of Dionysius Longinus, Cassius Longinus, or in the complete form given at the head of this article. He was horn about a. d. 2 1 3, and was killed in a. d. 273, at the age of sixty. His native place is uncertjiin ; some say that lie was born at Palmyra, and others call him a Syrian or a native of Emesa. The belief that he was of Syrian origin is only an inference from the fact that his mother was a Syrian woman, and from an ob- scure passage in Vopiscus (Anrelian. 30), from which it may be inferred that he was conversant with the Syriac language. But it is clear that these circumstances prove nothing, for he may have learned the Syriac language either from his mother or during his subsequent residence at Palmynu There is more ground for believing that Longinus was born at Athens, for Suidas (s. v. ^poi^-rwv) states that Phronto of Emesa, the uncle of Lon- ginus, taught rhetoric at Atiiens, and on his, death in that place left behind him Longinus, the son of his sister. It would seem that this Phronto took especial care of the education of his nephew, and on his death-bed he instituted him as his heir. In the preface to his work Trepl reAoys, which is pre- served in Porphyrius's life of Plotinus (p. 127), Longinus himself relates that from his early age he 3*^ 2