lleague, Terentius
Varro Lucullus, he passed a law (_lex Terentia Cassia_), the object of
which was to give authority for the purchase of corn at the public
expense, to be retailed at a fixed price at Rome. It is doubtful whether
this Cassius (who is often called by the additional name Varus) is
identical with the Varus who was proscribed by the triumvirs, and put to
death at Minturnae (43). According to Orosius he was killed at the
battle of Mutina.

See Cicero, _In Verrem_, iii. 70, 75, v. 21; Livy, _Epit._ 96; Appian,
_Bell. Civ._ iv. 28; Orosius v. 24.

3. GAIUS CASSIUS LONGINUS, prime mover in the conspiracy against Julius
Caesar. Little is known of his early life. In 53 B.C. he served in the
Parthian campaign under M. Licinius Crassus, saved the remnants of the
army after the defeat at Carrhae, and for two years successfully
repelled the enemy. In 49 B.C. he became tribune of the plebs. The
outbreak of the civil war saved him from being brought to trial for
extortion in Syria. He at first sided with Pompey, and as commander of
part of his fleet rendered considerable service in the Mediterranean.
After Pharsalus he became reconciled to Caesar, who made him one of his
legates. In 44 B.C. he became _praetor peregrinus_ with the promise of
the Syrian province for the ensuing year. The appointment of his junior,
M. Junius Brutus, as _praetor urbanus_ deeply offended him, and he was
one of the busiest conspirators against Caesar, taking an active part in
the actual assassination. He then left Italy for Syria, raised a
considerable army, and defeated P. Cornelius Dolabella, to whom the
province had been assigned by the senate. On the formation of the
triumvirate, Brutus and he, with their combined armies, crossed the
Hellespont, marched through Thrace, and encamped near Philippi in
Macedonia. Their intention was to starve out the enemy, but they were
forced into an engagement. Brutus was successful against Octavian, but
Cassius, defeated by M. Antonius (Mark Antony), gave up all for lost,
and ordered his freedman to slay him. He was lamented by Brutus as "the
last of the Romans," and buried at Thasos. A man of considerable
ability, he was a good soldier, and took an interest in literature, but
in politics he was actuated by vanity and ambition. His portrait in
Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar_, though vivid, is scarcely historical.

See Plutarch, _Brutus_, passim, _Crassus_, 27, 29, _Caesar_, 62, 69;
Dio Cassius x