Lucius Cassius Longinus was a Roman senator, who was active during the reigns of Tiberius and Caligula. He was ordinary consul in the year AD 30 with Marcus Vinicius as his colleague.[1] Longinus came from an ancient and noble gens, the Cassii. He is best known as the first husband of the Emperor Caligula's sister Julia Drusilla, whom he married in 33.[2]
In early 37, he was appointed by Tiberius as a commissioner. After Caligula became Caesar later that year, he ordered Longinus to divorce Drusilla so that she could marry Marcus Aemilius Lepidus.[3] While Longinus was proconsular governor of Asia (40/41), Caligula ordered his execution based on an oracle which Caligula interpreted as indicating that Cassius would assassinate him.[4]
References
edit- ^ Attilio Degrassi, I fasti consolari dell'Impero Romano dal 30 avanti Cristo al 613 dopo Cristo (Rome, 1952), p. 10
- ^ Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, "Life of Caligula", 21.
- ^ Cassius Dio, 59.11.1
- ^ Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, "Life of Caligula", 57