Longinus
- a Roman surname in the gens Cassia.—So, Cassius Longinus, v. Cassius.—
- II A Grecian philosopher, minister of Zenobia, who was put to death by Aurelian, Vop. Aur. 30; Hier. Ep. 95.
(1) Dionysius Cassius (Αογγῖνος). A Greek rhetorician, born at Athens about A.D. 213, who studied Neoplatonism at Alexandria, and practised as teacher of philosophy, grammar (i. e. literary criticism), and rhetoric, in his native city, from about 260, until the accomplished queen Zenobia of Palmyra summoned him as minister to her court. As he persuaded her to resist the Roman yoke, the emperor Aurelian caused him to be executed after Zenobia's overthrow in 273. He possessed such an extent of learning that Eunapius called him a living library and a walking museum. His versatility is proved by compositions on philosophy, grammar, rhetoric, chronology, and literature. Of these, only fragments are extant, for example, the introduction to a commentary on Hephaestion's handbook of metres, and a short Rhetoric incomplete at the beginning. A brief treatise On the Sublime (Περὶ Ὕψους), commonly ascribed to him, is more probably to be assigned to an unknown writer about the Christian era. It treats and illustrates by classic examples the characteristics of the lofty style from a philosophical and aesthetic point of view. It is written in a vigorous manner. Good editions are those of Weiske (1820), Egger (1837), both with excellent notes; and Jahn (1867; revised by Vahlen, 1887). On the question of authorship, see Buchenau, De Scriptore Libri Περὶ ὕψους (Marburg, 1849); Martens, De Libello Περὶ ὕψους (Bonn, 1877); and Egger, Essai sur l'Histoire de la Critique chez les Grecs (Paris, 1886).
(2) See Cassius.