Lucius Cassius Longinus was the brother of Gaius Cassius Longinus, a leading instigator in the assassination of Julius Caesar.
Around 52 BC, Lucius Longinus was triumvir monetalis in 63 BC. He minted denarii referring to the famous trial of the vestal virgins of 114–113 BC, which was prosecuted by his ancestor Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla. In 54 BC, he was the junior co-prosecutor () to in the trial of for electoral malpractice (). Plancius was defenced by Cicero, who accused Longinus of incompetence, immorality and inexperience in his defence speech, the .
Longinus was made a proconsulCIL 12.2.774—ILS 39. by Caesar's appointment in 48 BC, during the civil war. He occupied Thessaly, but was forced by Metellus Scipio to retreat, after which he joined Calvisius Sabinus in Aetolia.Julius Caesar, Bellum Civile 3.5.4, 7, 8, 15; Cassius Dio 41.44, 46, 48; Orosius 6.15.10. He was a tribune of the plebs in 44 BC, a year in which the people's tribunes were exceptionally numerous and his brother held the praetorship. Along with his fellow tribunes Tiberius Canutius and Decimus Carfulenus, L. Cassius was excluded from the important meeting of the Roman Senate held November 28 to reassign several provinces for the following year.Cicero, Philippics 3.23. For more on these provincial assignments, see G. Calvisius Sabinus: Praetor and governor. A bill enabling Caesar to add new families to the patriciateSuetonius, Divus Iulius 41.1; Tacitus, Annales 11.25; Cassius Dio 43.47.3. was probably sponsored by him rather than his brother as praetor.Giovanni Niccolini, I fasti dei tribuni della plebe (Milan 1934), p. 347, on the question of which brother was responsible for the legislation. Offices, dates, and citations of ancient sources from T. R. S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (American Philological Association, 1953), vol. 2, pp. 275, 323–324, 435, 544; vol. 3 (1986), pp. 51–52 (on monetalis date).
References
Bibliography
Michael Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, Cambridge University Press, 1974.