Avidius Cassius

Gaius Avidius Cassius (c. 130 – July 175 AD) was a Roman general and usurper who briefly ruled Egypt and Syria in 175.

Background

Gaius Avidius Cassius was the son of Gaius Avidius Heliodorus and Julia Cassia Alexandra. Heliodorus was a noted orator who also served as augustal prefect of Egypt from 137 to 142 AD under Hadrian. Julia Cassia was the great-granddaughter of Junia Lepida, who was herself a great-great-granddaughter of the first Roman emperor Augustus. In addition to Augustus, Cassius' mother was also a descendant of Herod the Great through her father, Gaius Julius Alexander Berenicianus.

Cassius was born in the town of Cyrrhus in Syria, although he once called Alexandria his 'paternal city'. Though his parents were Roman citizens, Avidius Cassius was a descendant of the Roman client-king Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Commagene, who had been dethroned half a century before. Thus, he counted inheritance from the Seleucid dynasty, which once ruled many eastern Roman provinces.