Longi'nus, Ca'ssius
12. L.
Cassius Longinus, brother of No. 1, assisted M. Laterensis in accusing Cn. Plancius, in B. C. 54 [LATERENSIS], and the speech which he delivered on that occasion is replied to by Cicero at considerable length. (Cic.
pro Planc. 24, &c.)
He is again mentioned in B. C. 52 as the accuser of M. Saufeius. (Ascon.
in Mil. p. 54, ed. Orelli.) On the breaking out of the civil war he joined the party of Caesar, while his brother espoused that of Pompey.
He is mentioned as one of Caesar's legates in Greece in B. C. 48, and was sent by him into Thessaly, in order to keep a watch upon the movements of Metellus Scipio.
Before the battle of Pharsalia he was despatched by Caesar with Fufius Calenus into Southern Greece [CALENUS.] Some ancient writers (
Suet. Jul. 63;
D. C. 42.6) confound him with his brother, and erroneously state that it was
Lucius, and not
Caius, who fell in with Caesar in the Hellespont after the battle of Pharsalia. [See above, p. 800b.]
In B. C. 44 L. Cassius was tribune of the plebs, but was not one of the conspirators against Caesar's life.
He is mentioned by Cicero as present at the Ludi Apollinares, which Brutus exhibited in the month of July, in order to conciliate the people [see above, p. 801, a.], and is said to have been received with applause as the brother of Caius.
He subsequently espoused the side of Octavian, in opposition to Antony; and consequently, when the latter assembled the senate in the capitol on the 28th of November, in order to declare Octavian an enemy of the state, he forbade Cassius and two of his colleagues to approach the capitol, lest they should put their veto upon the decree of the senate. [Comp. TI. CANUTIUS.] In March, B. C. 43, L. Cassius, in conjunction with his mother and Servilia, the mother-in-law of his brother Caius, attempted to prevent the latter from obtaining the conduct of the war against Dolabella, because the consuls Hirtius and Pansa laid claims to it. On the reconciliation of Octavian and Antony in the latter end of this year, Lucius, who dreaded the anger of the latter, fled to Asia; but after the battle of Philippi he was pardoned by Antony at Ephesus, in B. C. 41. (
Caes. Civ. 3.34, &c., 55;
D. C. 41.51;
Cic. Att. 14.2,
ad Fam. 12.2, 7,
Philipp. 3.9; Appian,
App. BC 5.7.)
