Gaius Cassius Longinus

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 11.13 §1 Gaius Cassius set out from Rhodes for Alexandria

  C. Cassius Longinus, the future tyrannicide, had commanded a Pompeian fleet; with Pompey dead he was moving to seek out Caesar (then besieged at Alexandria) to make his peace.

• Ad Atticum 11.15 §2 even Gaius Cassius has changed his plan of going to Alexandria

  C. Cassius Longinus had set out to seek Caesar at Alexandria (see 11.13) but reportedly abandoned the journey. Each such shift in the exiles' movements bore on Cicero's own calculation of where safety lay.

• Ad Atticum 11.16 §1 in the Cassius business

  One of a string of reverses Cicero lists across the eastern theatre. The "Cassius business" refers to operations involving C. Cassius Longinus and the unsettled Pompeian remnant at sea, the details of which were reaching Cicero only as rumour.

• Ad Atticum 15.5 §1 Cassius, for his part, urgently asks and begs that I make Hirtius as well-disposed as I can

  C. Cassius Longinus, the other chief assassin, wanted Cicero to win over the Caesarian consul-designate Hirtius; Cicero thinks the request naive ('Do you think the man is in his senses?').

• Ad Atticum 15.5 §2 the province of Brutus and Cassius being settled by a decree of the Senate

  Brutus and Cassius, both praetors in 44 BC, were to be given provincial commands abroad by senatorial decree (they got Crete and Cyrene) as a face-saving way of removing them from Rome.

• Ad Atticum 15.8 §2 Gaius Cassius

  Gaius Cassius Longinus, co-leader with Brutus of the conspiracy against Caesar; his report that armed men were being readied to attack Cicero's Tusculan estate fed the atmosphere of menace in these weeks.

• Ad Atticum 15.19 §2 to go over to Brutus and Cassius

  Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, the leading assassins of Caesar, now the rallying point for those opposing Antony; the nephew's wish to join them is the news in question.

• Ad Atticum 15.22 §1 on the warmest terms with Brutus and Cassius

  Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, the leaders of the conspiracy against Caesar; Cicero gauges Pansa's loyalties by whether he is genuinely friendly to the tyrannicides and hostile to Antony.

• Ad Atticum 16.2 §4 Cassius had arrived with his little squadron

  C. Cassius Longinus, the other principal assassin of Caesar; like Brutus he was on the Italian coast in summer 44 BC, here moving with a small flotilla of ships.

• Ad M. Brutum 2.1 §3 the minds of the majority look back to you and to Cassius

  By late March/early April 43 BC, Gaius Cassius Longinus had secured most of the eastern provinces and was advancing against Dolabella in Syria; the political centre of gravity at Rome was already shifting toward the hope that Brutus and Cassius together would march west and decide the war.

• Ad M. Brutum 2.2 §3 about Cassius, about the legions, about Syria

  Cassius Longinus had taken control of Syria and the legions stationed there in early 43 BC, a major coup for the Liberators against the Antonian faction.

• Ad Familiares 2.10 §2 our friend Cassius, much to my pleasure, had thrown the enemy back from Antioch with success

  C. Cassius Longinus (later one of Caesar's assassins) was at this date quaestor-cum-legate in Syria under M. Crassus, whose army had been destroyed at Carrhae in 53 BC. Left in effective command, Cassius successfully defended Antioch against a Parthian incursion in 51 BC.

• Ad Familiares 12.1 §1 CICERO CASSIO S.

  The letter-heading: "Cicero to Cassius, greetings." S. = salutem dicit, "sends greetings"; the recipient is C. Cassius Longinus, one of Caesar's assassins, now in the East raising republican armies.

• Ad Familiares 12.6 §1 CICERO CASSIO S.

  The salutation header: "Cicero to Cassius," with S. for salutem (dicit), "sends greetings." The recipient is C. Cassius Longinus, the tyrannicide then raising republican forces in the East.

• Ad Familiares 12.11 §1 C. CASSIVS PROCOS. S. D. M. CICERONI

  C. Cassius Longinus, the tyrannicide, writes as PROCOS. (proconsul) in command of the republican forces in the East. The formula S. D. is salutem dicit, "sends greetings," to M. Cicero.

• Ad Familiares 12.12 §1 CASSIVS PROCOS. S. D. M. CICERONI

  C. Cassius Longinus again writes as PROCOS. (proconsul); S. D. is salutem dicit, "sends greetings," to M. Cicero. The trailing letters in the manuscript opener are corrupt.

• Ad Familiares 12.13 §4 Our Cassius, with ten legions

  "Our Cassius" is C. Cassius Longinus, here named in the third person by the letter's writer Cassius Parmensis; he is the commander besieging Dolabella at Laodicea in Syria.

• Ad Familiares 15.14 §3 on your departure from your province the highest praise and the highest goodwill of the province escorted you

  Cassius had served as proquaestor in Syria after the death of Crassus and, left in effective command, repulsed a Parthian invasion under Pacorus near Antioch in 51 BC; that is the 'recent victory' Cicero congratulates.

• Ad Familiares 15.14 §4 this recent victory of yours will make your arrival a brilliant one

  A successful commander returning to Rome could expect an honorific reception and possibly a thanksgiving; Cicero urges Cassius to hasten home while the glory of his Parthian success is fresh.

• Tenth Philippic §8 The fleet of Cassius

  Gaius Cassius Longinus, the other principal assassin, who likewise left Italy by sea to take up command in the East. He and Brutus would jointly raise the Liberators' army.

• Eleventh Philippic §30 Gaius Cassius, as proconsul, hold the province of Syria

  The core of Cicero's draft decree: that C. Cassius Longinus, a leading assassin of Caesar, be confirmed as proconsul of Syria with overriding imperium to prosecute the war against Dolabella by land and sea.