ite of Cornwall, and it has occasionally been
found as a cementing material in certain brecciated lodes.

Among the localities yielding cassiterite may be mentioned Cornwall,
Saxony, Bohemia, Brittany, Galicia in Spain; the Malay peninsula, and
the islands of Banca and Billiton; New South Wales, Queensland and
Tasmania. Fine examples of wood-tin, occurring with topaz, are found in
Durango in Mexico. Deposits of cassiterite under rather exceptional
conditions are worked on a large scale in Bolivia; and it is notable
that cassiterite is found in Liassic limestone near Campiglia Marittima
in Tuscany. Cassiterite has been worked in the York region, Alaska.
(F. W. R.*)

CASSIUS, the name of a distinguished ancient Roman family, originally
patrician. Its most important members are the following.

1. SPURIUS CASSIUS, surnamed _Vecellinus_ (_Vicellinus, Viscellinus_),
Roman soldier and statesman, three times consul, and author of the first
agrarian law. In his first consulate (502 B.C.) he defeated the Sabines;
in his second (493) he renewed the league with the Latins, and dedicated
the temple of Ceres in the Circus; in his third (486) he made a treaty
with the conquered Hernici. The account of his agrarian law is confused
and contradictory; it is clear, however, that it was intended to benefit
the needy plebeians (see AGRARIAN LAWS). As such it was violently
opposed both by the patricians and by the wealthy plebeians. Cassius was
condemned by the people as aiming at kingly power, and hurled from the
Tarpeian rock. Another account says he was tried by the family council
and put to death by his own father, who considered his proposal
prejudicial to the patrician interest. According to Livy, his proposal
to bestow a share of the land upon the Latins was regarded with great
suspicion. According to Mommsen (_Romische Forschungen_, ii.), the whole
story is an invention of a later age, founded upon the proposals of the
Gracchi and M. Livius Drusus, to which period belongs the idea of
sharing public land with the Latins.

See Livy ii. 33, 41; Dion Halic. v. 49, viii. 69-80; Cicero, _Pro
Balbo_, 23 (53), _De Republica_, ii. 27 (49), 35 (60); Val. Max. v. 8.
2.

The following Cassii are all plebeians. It is suggested that the sons of
Spurius Cassius either were expelled from, or voluntarily left, the
patrician order, in consequence of their father's execution.

2. GAIUS CASSIUS LONGINUS, consul 73 B.C. With his co