The gens Cassia was a Roman family of great antiquity. The gens was originally patrician, but all of the members who appear in later times were plebeians. The first of the Cassii to obtain the consulship was Spurius Cassius Viscellinus, in 502 BC. He was the proposer of the first agrarian law, and was put to death by the patricians. As all of the Cassii known from after his time are plebeians, it is not improbable either that the patricians expelled them from their order, or that they abandoned it on account of the murder of Viscellinus.
The Cassia gens was reckoned one of the noblest in Rome; and members of it are constantly mentioned under the Empire as well as during the Republic. The Roman road to Arretium was called the Via Cassia, and the village of Cassianum Hirpinum was named for an estate of the family in the country of the Hirpini. One family of the Cassii was one of the dominant houses of Olissipo in Lusitania.
A possible clue to the origin of the Cassii is the cognomen Viscellinus or Vecellinus, borne by the eldest branch of the family. It appears to be derived from the town of Viscellium or Vescellium, a settlement of the Hirpini, which is mentioned by Titus Livius in connection with the Second Punic War. The town was one of three captured by the praetor Marcus Valerius Laevinus after they had revolted in 215 BC. Its inhabitants, the Viscellani, are also mentioned by Plinius. This suggests the possibility that the ancestors of the Cassii were from Hirpinum, or had some other connection with Viscellium. The existence of a substantial estate of the Cassii in Hirpinum at a later time further supports such a connection.
The principal names of the Cassii during the Republic were Lucius, Gaius, and Quintus. The praenomen Spurius was used only by the patrician house of the Cassii Viscellini. Marcus is known from a single instance at the very end of the Republic, in which the praenomen is given only by Valerius Maximus.
Branches and cognomina
The chief family of the Cassii in the time of the Republic bears the name of Longinus. The other cognomina during this time are Hemina, Parmensis, Ravilla, Sabaco, Varus, and Viscellinus. The Viscellini were the only patrician family of the gens. Under the Empire, the surnames are very numerous.
This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.
Spurius Cassius (Viscellinus), grandfather of the consul.
Spurius Cassius S. f. (Viscellinus), father of the consul.
Spurius Cassius S. f. S. n. Viscellinus, consul in 502, 493, and 486 BC, and the first magister equitum in 501; put to death by the patricians after proposing the first agrarian law during his third consulship.
Cassii Viscellini, three sons of the consul whose praenomina are unknown, spared by the senate after the murder of their father. They or their descendants may have been expelled by the patricians from their order, or have voluntarily passed over to the plebeians.
Quintus Cassius Longinus, tribunus militum in 252 BC, during the First Punic War. He was deprived of his command following a severe defeat, after engaging the enemy against the orders of the consul, Gaius Aurelius Cotta.
Lucius Cassius Q. f. Longinus, son of the tribune of 252 BC.
Gaius Cassius Longinus, grandfather of the consul of 171 BC.
Gaius Cassius C. f. Longinus, father of the consul of 171 BC.
Gaius Cassius C. f. C. n. Longinus, consul in 171 and censor in 154 BC.
Quintus Cassius L. f. Q. n. Longinus, consul in 164 BC, died during his year of office.
Quintus Cassius Q. f. L. n. Longinus, son of the consul of 164 BC.
Lucius Cassius Q. f. L. n. Longinus Ravilla, consul in 127 and censor in 125 BC.
Gaius Cassius C. f. C. n. Longinus, consul in 124 BC.
Lucius Cassius Q. f. Q. n. Longinus, consul in 107 BC, slain by the Tigurini.
Lucius Cassius L. f. Q. n. Longinus, tribunus plebis in 104 BC.
Gaius Cassius L. f. Q. n. Longinus, consul in 96 BC.
Gaius Cassius Longinus Varus, consul in 73 BC, proscribed and killed by the triumvirs in 43.
Lucius Cassius Longinus, unsuccessful candidate for the consulship in 63 BC, and afterward one of Catiline's conspirators.
Gaius Cassius Longinus, the tyrannicide, praetor peregrinus in 44 BC.
Lucius Cassius Longinus, tribunus plebis in 44 BC.
Gaius Cassius C. f. Longinus, son of the tyrannicide, received the toga virilis just before the murder of Caesar.
Lucius Cassius L. f. Longinus, left by his uncle, Gaius, as governor of Syria in 43 BC, fell at the Battle of Philippi.
Quintus Cassius Longinus, tribunus plebis in 49 BC, and governor of Hispania Ulterior during the Civil War.
Quintus Cassius (Longinus), legate of Quintus Cassius Longinus in Hispania in 48 BC, probably the same man who received that province from Antonius at the end of 44.
Lucius Cassius Longinus, consul in AD 30, married Drusilla, the sister of Caligula.
Gaius Cassius Longinus, a jurist, consul suffectus in AD 30; banished by Claudius, but afterward recalled by Vespasian.
Lucius Cassius Hemina, a historian of the 2nd century BC.
Gaius Cassius, tribunus militum in 168 BC, entrusted by the praetor Lucius Anicius Gallus with the custody of the Illyrian king Gentius.
Lucius Cassius, proconsul in Asia in 90 BC, captured the following year by Mithradates.
Lucius Cassius, tribunus plebis in 89 BC, excited the crowds to riot and murder the praetor, Aulus Sempronius Asellio.
Marcus Cassius Scaeva, a centurion in Caesar's army at the Battle of Dyrrhachium, and later one of Caesar's partisans.
Cassius Dionysius, a native of Utica, and an agricultural writer, who translated the work of the Carthaginian Mago.
Cassius Barba, a friend of Caesar, who gave Cicero guards for his villa, when Caesar paid him a visit in 44 BC.
Cassius Etruscus, an author ridiculed by Quintus Horatius Flaccus, sometimes confused with Cassius Parmensis.
Cassius Parmensis, tribunus militum in the army of Brutus and Cassius, put to death by Octavianus.
Cassius Betillinus, apparently an error for Betilienus Bassus.
Cassius Severus, a celebrated orator and satirical writer, in the time of Augustus and Tiberius.
Gaius Cassius Chaerea, tribune of the Praetorian Guard under Caligula, against whom he conspired and whom he helped to assassinate, with the intent of restoring the Republic.
Cassius Asclepiodotus, a wealthy man of Bithynia, exiled by Nero, but subsequently restored by Galba.
Cassius Felix, also called Cassius Iatrosophista, author of a medical treatise, Quaestiones Medicae et Problemata Naturalia.
Avidius Cassius, a successful general under Marcus Aurelius, against whom he subsequently rebelled.
Cassius Apronianus, governor of Dalmatia and Cilicia, father of the historian Cassius Dio.
Cassius Clemens, brought to trial circa AD 195, for having espoused the side of Gaius Pescennius Niger, defended himself with such dignity that Septimius Severus granted him his life and allowed him to retain half his property.
Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, author of a monumental history of Rome.
Cassius Dio, consul in AD 291, perhaps the grandson of the historian.
