Cassia

originally patrician, afterwards plebeian. We have mention of only one patrician of this gens, Sp. Cassius Viscellinus, consul in B. C. 502, and the proposer of the first agrarian law, who was put to death by the patricians. As all the Cassii after his time are plebeians, it is not improbable either that the patricians expelled them from their order, or that they abandoned it on account of the murder of Viscellinus. The Cassia gens was reckoned one of the noblest in Rome; and members of it are constantly mentioned under the empire as well as during the republic (Comp. Tac. Ann. 6.15.) The chief family in the time of the republic bears the name of Longinus : the other cognomens during that time are Hemina, Parmensis, Ravilla, Sabaco, Varus, Viscellinus. Under the empire, the surnames are very numerous : of these an alphabetical list is given below. The few persons of this gens mentioned without any cognomen are given under Cassius.