Gaius Cassius Longinus was a

Roman consul The consuls were the highest elected public officials of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC). Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum''an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspire ...

in 73 BC (together with

Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus (116 – soon after 56 BC), younger brother of the more famous Lucius Licinius Lucullus, was a supporter of Lucius Cornelius Sulla and consul of ancient Rome in 73 BC. As proconsul of Macedonia in 72 BC, he defeat ...

). Cassius and his colleague passed the ''lex Terentia Cassia'' that ordered the state to buy up grain in Sicily and sell it for a low price in Rome. As

proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a Roman consul, consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military ...

Cisalpine Gaul Cisalpine Gaul (, also called ''Gallia Citerior'' or ''Gallia Togata'') was the name given, especially during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, to a region of land inhabited by Celts (Gauls), corresponding to what is now most of northern Italy. Afte ...

in the next year, 72 BC, during the

Third Servile War The Third Servile War, also called the Gladiator War and the War of Spartacus by Plutarch, was the last in a series of slave rebellions against the Roman Republic known as the Servile Wars. This third rebellion was the only one that directl ...

, Cassius tried to stop

Spartacus Spartacus (; ) was a Thracians, Thracian gladiator (Thraex) who was one of the Slavery in ancient Rome, escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major Slave rebellion, slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Historical accounts o ...

and his followers near

Mutina Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbi ...

(Modena) as the slave army was trying to break through to unoccupied

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

, but suffered defeat and barely managed to get away alive. Two years later, Cassius appeared as a witness for the prosecution, which was being led by

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

, in the trial against the corrupt former governor of Sicily,

Verres Gaius Verres ( 114 – 43 BC) was a Roman magistrate, notorious for his misgovernment of Sicily. His extortion of local farmers and plundering of temples led to his prosecution by Cicero, whose accusations were so devastating that his defence advo ...

. In 66 BC, Cassius supported the

Manilian law The ''lex Manilia'' (Law of Manilius) was a Roman law passed in 66 BC granting Pompey the military command in the East against Mithridates VI of Pontus. Background Previously, the war against Mithridates (commonly known as the Third Mithr ...

that gave command of the war against Mithridates to

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...

; he was joined in this by

, then

praetor ''Praetor'' ( , ), also ''pretor'', was the title granted by the government of ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected ''magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to disch ...

, whose famous speech in support of the same bill survives. This Cassius Longinus may have been the father of the more famous assassin of Caesar,

Gaius Cassius Longinus Gaius Cassius Longinus (; – 3 October 42 BC) was a Roman senator and general best known as a leading instigator of the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar on 15 March 44 BC. He was the brother-in-law of Brutus, another leader of the conspir ...

.see Kleiner Pauly under Cassius 15.

Notes

Bibliography

*Broughton, T. Robert S. ''Magistrates of the Roman Republic,'' vol. 2. Cleveland: Case Western University Press, 1968, p. 109 and 117. *Bradley, Keith. ''Slavery and Rebellion in the Roman World.'' Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989, p. 96. *

Selected ancient Sources

*Livy, ''Periochae'' 96. *Plutarch, ''Crassus'' 9.7. *Florus, ''Epitome'' 2.8.10. *Orosius 5.24.4. (Some of these sources are available in English translation from the Internet Ancient History Sourcebook (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/3slaverevolttexts.htm ).) *Appian, ''Civil Wars'' 1.117. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cassius Longinus, Gaius (consul 681 AUC) 1st-century BC Roman consuls Gaius (consul 681 AUC) Year of birth unknown Place of birth missing Year of death unknown Place of death missing