| “ | I know where I will wear this dagger then; Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius. | „ |
| ~ Cassius plotting to kill Caesar. |
Gaius Cassius Longinus, or Cassius, for short, is the overarching antagonist of William Shakespeare's 1599 play Julius Caesar. He is the mastermind behind the plan to kill Caesar, inadvertently sending the Roman Empire into war.
History[]
Cassius was a Roman senator with unsavory feelings toward Emperor Julius Caesar. When he heard news that Caesar intended to abolish democracy and make himself a king, Cassius decided that Caesar had to die in order to preserve the ideals Rome was founded upon. However, he knew that he needed a public figure who was well-liked by his peers so that when they do kill Caesar, their murder would be seen as justified, because the Romans disliked the idea of being governed by a king, at that time. This is where Brutus came in.
Marcus Brutus was a praetor, as well as the brother-in-law of Cassius Longinus. Brutus was one of Caesar's closest friends, and he was also the one who was the most intimate with him. In the play, Cassius manipulated Brutus into helping them assassinate Caesar, and after much discussion, Brutus ultimately decided that betraying his friend was best for Rome.
On March 15, 44 BC, Caesar arrived to the Capitol building in Rome, and he was immediately met by the conniving conspirators. After one of the conspirators caught Julius off guard, Cassius and his cohorts proceeded to stab the defenseless Caesar multiple times. After Caesar died, Brutus and his fellow conspirators later made a speech to the public concerning Julius' death by saying that it was for the best for Rome. However, Brutus and his fellow traitors were forced to flee Rome after Mark Antony convinced the crowd that they were traitors to Rome, and that Caesar was going to publicly deposit money to them as evident in his will.
In the final act of the play, Cassius and Brutus engage in a battle with Caesar's adopted son, Octavius, on the mountain of Philipi. Knowing that he and his brother-in-law may as well die in the upcoming battle ahead, he bid Brutus farewell, and he then took his position on the battlefield. Later on, he thought that his friend, Titinius, was taken as a prisoner-of-war by the enemy. Unwilling to live with the fact that one of his friends would most likely be tortured for his treachery, he asks his servant, Pindarus, to run him through with his own sword. Titinius later comes back from the fight, and discovers that Cassius had killed himself. In despair, Titinius joins him in death by killing himself.
Trivia[]
- In a general way, Cassius serves as the catalyst for the events for Antony and Cleopatra . As he and the other conspirators assassinated Julius Caesar, it led the way for Caesar's adopted son Augustus to start a war with Mark Antony, who would have been the ally and lover of Cleopatra, who would have been defeated by Augustus, causing both of them to commit suicide and to pave the way for Augustus to become emperor of Rome.
- Modern historians now belief that the real Cassius never really cared about fighting for a republic, as he and his other conspirators minted coins glorifying their actions, and their own likenesses on it. He was following in the same tradition as Pompey and Caesar, by building a cult of personality, ironically since the play had Cassius complain about Caesar having a like cult like personality. Had he won, there's a good chance he would have been an autocrat like Caesar or Augustus.