SYRIA, Seleukis and Pieria. Antioch. Gaius Cassius Longinus, quaestor, 53-51. Tetradrachm (Silver, 27 mm, 15.33 g, 12 h), in the name and types of the Seleukid king Philip I Philadelphos (95/4-76/5 BC). Diademed head of Philip I to right. Rev. [B]AΣIΛE[ΩΣ] / ΦIΛIΠΠΟ[Υ] - EΠIΦΑΝΟΥΣ / [ΦI]ΛAΔEΛΦ[ΟΥ] Zeus seated left, holding Nike in his right hand and long scepter in his left; in inner left field, monogram of AYΓB; below throne, monogram; in exergue, thunderbolt; all within wreath. McAlee 3. Prieur 3. RPC I 4126. SC 2489.3. Rare and unusually attractive. Faint scratches on the obverse, otherwise, about extremely fine.


Gaius Cassius Longinus, then serving as quaestor to the governor of Syria, Marcus Licinius Crassus, played a prominent role in the Roman campaign against Parthia. The invasion ended in catastrophe at Carrhae, widely regarded as Rome’s worst defeat since Hannibal’s destruction of a Roman army at Cannae in 216 BC. Ancient sources emphasize that Crassus ignored Cassius’ counsel against the war, a decision that led to the near annihilation of some 40,000 legionaries and to Crassus’ own death. Cassius, however, succeeded in bringing a remnant of the army safely back from Carrhae and withdrew with his troops to Antioch, where they endured a Parthian siege in 51 BC. When the besiegers abandoned the attempt, Cassius pursued them and inflicted a sharp reverse in an ambush, reportedly killing their commander Osaces - a measure of recompense for the disaster of two years earlier. Yet Cassius’ enduring fame would rest less on this success than on his leading role in the conspiracy that culminated in the murder of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March, 44 BC.