Roman senator who played a key role in the
events that precipitated the demise of the old republic. Gaius
Cassius Longinus was an ally
of the triumvir, Marcus Licinius
Crassus. After Crassus was
killed fighting the Parthians (53
BCE), Cassius regrouped the
remnants of the defeated Roman army & for two years repelled
Parthian attacks on Syria. He was made tribune (49 BCE) & served
as a naval commander of Pompey's
fleet in the civil war with Julius
Caesar. Caesar pardoned him
& appointed him legate, with the promise that he would be made
governor of Syria in 44
BCE. Despite this, Cassius organized the
conspiracy to assassinate Caesar. Six months later he withdrew to
Syria & without authorization ousted the former governor,
Publius Cornelius Dolabella. He appointed Herod
governor of Coele-Syria [Lebanon]. To gain much needed revenues for
the civil war with Caesar's heirs, Marc
Antony & Octavian,
he ordered procurators in Syria & Palestine, including Antipater,
to collect heavy taxes. He joined forces with Brutus at Philippi,
Macedonia (42
BCE), but committed suicide when Antony's forces
defeated his. Almost a century later his relative & namesake,
a prominent Roman jurist, served as governor of Syria under the
emperor Claudius.
References:
Josephus,
Antiquities
14.119-122, 270--280, 288-304, 311-320.
_____, War 1.180-182,
218-242, 280.
Plutarch, Parallel Lives: Marcus Brutus, Caesar, Antony.
Other online resources:
Perspective on the
World of Jesus 