Cassius

Cassius, Caius, one of the conspirators against Julius Caesar, and one of his assassins. After a successful career as a soldier in the Parthian war, under Crassus, he returned to Rome in 49 B.C., and became tribune of the people. In the dispute between Caesar and Pompey he sided with the latter, but after Pharsalia he surrendered to Caesar, who pardoned and befriended him. In spite of this he appears to have been the chief mover in the conspiracy against Cfesar, possibly through aristocratic prejudice, or from meanness of nature. After Caesar's death Cassius went with Brutus to Macedonia and Syria, and was with him at the battle of Philippi, where they were attacked by Antony and Octavianus. The division under Cassius was defeated, and he ordered his freedman to kill him, thus dying as a second-hand suicide.