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Avidius Cassius
Portrait of a Roman, c.170 CE. Avidius Cassius may have looked like this. Glyptothek, München (Germany). Photo Jona Lendering.
Portrait of a Roman, c.170 CE. Avidius Cassius may have looked like this. (Glyptothek, München)		 Avidius Cassius: usurper during the reign of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Names:

  • c.120/130: Gaius Avidius Heliodorus, probably in Alexandria
  • April 175: Imperator Caesar Gaius Avidius Cassius Augustus
  • July 175: murdered by officers
Relatives:
  • father: Gaius Avidius Heliodorus (prefect of Egypt during Antoninus Pius)
  • mother: Julia Cassia Alexandra
    • She was the daughter of Gaius Julius Alexander, prince of Cetis in Cilicia and a descendant of Herod the Great) and Iotape, daughter of Antiochus IV of Commagene)
  • married to: Volusia (?)
  • children: Heliodorus, Maecianus, Alexandria
Main deeds:
  • 166: Consul
  • 172: Successor of Lucius Verus as supreme commander of the Roman forces in the East;
  • April 175: revolted against Marcus Aurelius
  • Famous, one word letter from Herodes Atticus: emanês, 'you have gone mad'
  • No coins of Avidius Cassius are known, which suggests that he saw his reign as some kind of stewardship
  • July 175: murdered by officers
  • Damnatio memoriae
Sources
Ancient-Warfare.com, the online home of Ancient Warfare magazine

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