Cassius. I. Longinns Cains, the leader of the conspiracy against Ca3sar, died in 42 B. C. In 53 he was quaestor in the campaign against the Parthians, and distinguished himself by military skill, particularly after the death of Cras-sus, in the defeat at Carrhaa. " Having collected the remains of the army, he defended Syria, and won in the next two years two victories over the Parthians. After his return to Rome he was tribune of the people, embraced the party of the senate at the outbreak of the civil war, and followed Pompey, whose fleet he then commanded, in his flight. After the defeat at Pharsalia (48), he led the fleet to the Hellespont, but having fallen in with Caesar, he surrendered. Caesar pardoned him, made him praetor, and promised him the province of Syria. At the same time Cassius was engaged with Brutus in forming a conspiracy against the dictatorial rule and the life of his benefactor. Caesar fell on the ides of March, 44, and the senate rewarded his murderers with provinces. Cassius received Syria, where he defeated his opponent D.olabella, plundered its cities to provide, means for the war against Antony and Octavius, and returned with Brutus to 'Macedonia. The two ensuing battles of Philippi (42) ended their lives, with the hopes of the Roman republicans.

In the first, Antony defeated the wing of Cassius, who, mistaking the cavalry of the victorious Brutus hastening to his relief for that of Octavius, killed himself, as Plutarch says, with the dagger which wounded Caesar. In the second, Brutus, who mourned him as the last of the Romans, followed his example. II. Cassias Par-mensis, so called from his birthplace, the city of Parma, was also one of the conspirators against Caesar, after whose death he adhered to the aristocratic republican party of Brutus and his namesake Cassius, and fought on their side until their defeat at Philippi. He subsequently joined Pompey, and .afterward surrendered himself to Antony, whose fortunes he followed until after the battle of Actium; he then retired to Athens, where he was put to death by order of Augustus. He was a poet of some eminence, not to be confounded with Cassius of Etruria, who is ridiculed by Horace in his Scrmones for his facility and poverty of composition, and is believed to be the person alluded to by Shakespeare as torn to pieces in the streets of Rome by the rabble immediately on the celebration of Caesar's funeral rites, and the raising of the people by Antony.