Part 39

CASSITERITE (from the Gr. [Greek: kassiteros], tin), the mineralogical name for tin-stone, the common ore of tin. It consists of tin dioxide, or stannic oxide (SnO2), and crystallizes in the tetragonal system. The crystals are usually 4-sided or 8-sided prisms, striated vertically, and terminated by pyramids (fig. 1). Twins, with characteristic re-entrant angles, such as figs. 2 and 3, are common. Certain slender prismatic crystals, with an acute 8-sided pyramid, are known in Cornwall as "sparable tin," in allusion to their resemblance to sparable nails, whilst very slender crystals are termed needle-tin. Occasionally the mineral occurs in fibrous forms, which pass under the name of "wood-tin," and these, though not unknown in the matrix, are generally found as rolled pebbles. By the disintegration of tin-bearing rocks and vein-stones, the cassiterite passes into the beds of streams as rolled fragments and grains, or even sand, and is then known as stream tin or alluvial tin. This detrital tin-ore was probably used as a source of the metal before the primitive miners had learnt to attack the solid tin-bearing rocks.

[Illustration: Fig. 1]

[Illustration: Fig. 2]

[Illustration: Fig. 3]

Pure cassiterite may be colourless, or white, as seen in certain specimens from the Malay Peninsula; but usually the mineral is brown or even black, the colour being referred to the presence of ferric oxide or other impurity. Occasionally the tin-stone is red. In microscopic sections the colour is often seen to be disposed in zones, following the contour of the crystal. A brown variety, with rather resinous lustre, is termed "rosin tin." The usual lustre of crystals of cassiterite is remarkably splendent, even adamantine. The mineral has a high refractive index, and strong bi-refringence. Certain transparent yellow and brown specimens, cut as gem-stones, exhibit considerable brilliancy. The hardness of cassiterite is 6.5, so that it cannot be scratched with a knife, and is nearly as hard as quartz. Its specific gravity is about 7; and in consequence of this high density, the tin-stone is readily separated during the process of dressing, from all the associated minerals, except wolframite, which may, however, be removed by magnetic separators.

Cassiterite usually occurs as veins or impregnations in granitic rocks, and is especially associated with the quartz-mica rock called greisen. The usual associates of the tin-stone are quartz, tourmaline, apatite, topaz, beryl, fluorite, lithia-mica, wolframite, chalcopyrite, &c. The presence of fluorine in many of these minerals has led to the opinion that the tin has been derived in many cases from an acid or granitic magma by the action of fluorine-bearing vapours, and that cassiterite may have been formed by the interaction of tin fluoride and water vapour. Cassiterite occurs as a pseudomorph after orthoclase felspar in some of the altered granite of Cornwall, and it has occasionally been found as a cementing material in certain brecciated lodes.

Among the localities yielding cassiterite may be mentioned Cornwall, Saxony, Bohemia, Brittany, Galicia in Spain; the Malay peninsula, and the islands of Banca and Billiton; New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania. Fine examples of wood-tin, occurring with topaz, are found in Durango in Mexico. Deposits of cassiterite under rather exceptional conditions are worked on a large scale in Bolivia; and it is notable that cassiterite is found in Liassic limestone near Campiglia Marittima in Tuscany. Cassiterite has been worked in the York region, Alaska. (F. W. R.*)

CASSIUS, the name of a distinguished ancient Roman family, originally patrician. Its most important members are the following.

1. SPURIUS CASSIUS, surnamed _Vecellinus_ (_Vicellinus, Viscellinus_), Roman soldier and statesman, three times consul, and author of the first agrarian law. In his first consulate (502 B.C.) he defeated the Sabines; in his second (493) he renewed the league with the Latins, and dedicated the temple of Ceres in the Circus; in his third (486) he made a treaty with the conquered Hernici. The account of his agrarian law is confused and contradictory; it is clear, however, that it was intended to benefit the needy plebeians (see AGRARIAN LAWS). As such it was violently opposed both by the patricians and by the wealthy plebeians. Cassius was condemned by the people as aiming at kingly power, and hurled from the Tarpeian rock. Another account says he was tried by the family council and put to death by his own father, who considered his proposal prejudicial to the patrician interest. According to Livy, his proposal to bestow a share of the land upon the Latins was regarded with great suspicion. According to Mommsen (_Romische Forschungen_, ii.), the whole story is an invention of a later age, founded upon the proposals of the Gracchi and M. Livius Drusus, to which period belongs the idea of sharing public land with the Latins.

See Livy ii. 33, 41; Dion Halic. v. 49, viii. 69-80; Cicero, _Pro Balbo_, 23 (53), _De Republica_, ii. 27 (49), 35 (60); Val. Max. v. 8. 2.

The following Cassii are all plebeians. It is suggested that the sons of Spurius Cassius either were expelled from, or voluntarily left, the patrician order, in consequence of their father's execution.

2. GAIUS CASSIUS LONGINUS, consul 73 B.C. With his colleague, Terentius Varro Lucullus, he passed a law (_lex Terentia Cassia_), the object of which was to give authority for the purchase of corn at the public expense, to be retailed at a fixed price at Rome. It is doubtful whether this Cassius (who is often called by the additional name Varus) is identical with the Varus who was proscribed by the triumvirs, and put to death at Minturnae (43). According to Orosius he was killed at the battle of Mutina.

See Cicero, _In Verrem_, iii. 70, 75, v. 21; Livy, _Epit._ 96; Appian, _Bell. Civ._ iv. 28; Orosius v. 24.

3. GAIUS CASSIUS LONGINUS, prime mover in the conspiracy against Julius Caesar. Little is known of his early life. In 53 B.C. he served in the Parthian campaign under M. Licinius Crassus, saved the remnants of the army after the defeat at Carrhae, and for two years successfully repelled the enemy. In 49 B.C. he became tribune of the plebs. The outbreak of the civil war saved him from being brought to trial for extortion in Syria. He at first sided with Pompey, and as commander of part of his fleet rendered considerable service in the Mediterranean. After Pharsalus he became reconciled to Caesar, who made him one of his legates. In 44 B.C. he became _praetor peregrinus_ with the promise of the Syrian province for the ensuing year. The appointment of his junior, M. Junius Brutus, as _praetor urbanus_ deeply offended him, and he was one of the busiest conspirators against Caesar, taking an active part in the actual assassination. He then left Italy for Syria, raised a considerable army, and defeated P. Cornelius Dolabella, to whom the province had been assigned by the senate. On the formation of the triumvirate, Brutus and he, with their combined armies, crossed the Hellespont, marched through Thrace, and encamped near Philippi in Macedonia. Their intention was to starve out the enemy, but they were forced into an engagement. Brutus was successful against Octavian, but Cassius, defeated by M. Antonius (Mark Antony), gave up all for lost, and ordered his freedman to slay him. He was lamented by Brutus as "the last of the Romans," and buried at Thasos. A man of considerable ability, he was a good soldier, and took an interest in literature, but in politics he was actuated by vanity and ambition. His portrait in Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar_, though vivid, is scarcely historical.

See Plutarch, _Brutus_, passim, _Crassus_, 27, 29, _Caesar_, 62, 69; Dio Cassius xl. 28, xlii. 13, xliv. 14, xlvii. 20; Vell. Pat. ii. 46, 56, 58, 69, 70, 87; Cicero, _Philippics_, xi. 13, 14, _ad Att._ v. 21, xiv. 21, _ad Fam._ xi. 3, 15, 16; Appian, _Bell. Civ._ ii. 111, 113, iii. 2, 8, iv. 60-62, 87, 90, 111-113, 132; Caesar, _Bell. Civ._ iii. 101.

4. QUINTUS CASSIUS LONGINUS, the brother or cousin of the murderer of Caesar, quaestor of Pompey in Further Spain in 54 B.C. In 49, as tribune of the people, he strongly supported the cause of Caesar, by whom he was made governor of Further Spain. He treated the provincials with great cruelty, and his appointment (48) to take the field against Juba, king of Numidia, gave him an excuse for fresh oppression. The result was an unsuccessful insurrection at Corduba. Cassius punished the leaders with merciless severity, and made the lot of the provincials harder than ever. At last some of his troops revolted under the quaestor M. Marcellus, who was proclaimed governor of the province. Cassius was surrounded by Marcellus in Ulia. Bogud, king of Mauretania, and M. Lepidus, proconsul of Hither Spain, to whom Cassius had applied for assistance, negotiated an arrangement with Marcellus whereby Cassius was to be allowed to go free with the legions that remained loyal to him. Cassius sent his troops into winter quarters, hastened on board ship at Malaca with his ill-gotten gains, but was wrecked in a storm at the mouth of the Iberus (Ebro). His tyrannical government of Spain had greatly injured the cause of Caesar.

See Dio Cassius xli. 15, 24, xlii. 15, 16, xliii. 29; Livy, _Epit._ III; Appian, _B.C._ ii. 33, 43; _Bellum Alexandrinum_, 48-64.

5. GAIUS CASSIUS LONGINUS (1st century A.D.), Roman jurist, consul in 30, proconsul of Asia 40-41, and governor of Syria under Claudius 45-50. On his return to Rome his wealth and high character secured him considerable influence. He was banished by Nero (65) to Sardinia, because among the images of his ancestors he had preserved that of the murderer of Caesar. He was recalled by Vespasian, and died at an advanced age. As he was consul in 30, he must have been born at the latest in the year 3 B.C. Cassius was a pupil of Masurius Sabinus, with whom he founded a legal school, the followers of which were called Cassiani. His chief work was the _Libri Juris Civilis_ in ten books, which was used by the compilers of the _Digest_ of Justinian.

See Tacitus, _Annals_, xvi. 7-9; Suetonius, _Nero_, 37; Dio Cassius lix. 29; Teuffel-Schwabe, _Hist. of Roman Literature_, S 298, 3.

CASSIUS, AVIDIUS (d. A.D. 175), Roman general, a Syrian by birth, lived during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. He especially distinguished himself during the Parthian War (A.D. 162-165), at the conclusion of which he was apparently appointed military governor of Asia, though the actual extent of his jurisdiction is doubtful. In 172 he was sent to Egypt, where he put down a dangerous rising of the Bucolici, the robber herdsmen of the delta of the Nile, after which he returned to Syria. In 175 the emperor Aurelius fell ill, and his wife Faustina, to secure her position in case of his death, offered her hand and the throne to the successful general. A rumour of Aurelius's death having reached Syria, Cassius, without waiting for confirmation, proclaimed himself emperor; when the report proved false, it was too late for him to draw back, and he accordingly prepared for war. The senate declared him a public enemy, although Aurelius even then expressed the hope that he might have the opportunity of pardoning him. Deploring the necessity for taking up arms against his trusted officer, Aurelius set out for the east. While in Illyria, he received the news that Cassius had been slain by his own officers. The murderers offered his head to Aurelius, who refused to admit them, and ordered its immediate burial.

See Dio Cassius lxxi. 2-4, 17, 22-28, 30, 31; Fronto, _Letters_, i. 6; Lives of Marcus Aurelius, Verus and Commodus in the _Scriptores Historiae Augustae_, and the special biography of Avidius Cassius in the same by Vulcacius Gallicanus. The various letters and documents in the last-named are generally considered spurious, and the portions of the narrative founded on them consequently untrustworthy. See also article in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopadie_, ii. pt. 2 (1896).

CASSIUS, GAIUS, Latin poet, general and politician, called Parmensis from his birthplace Parma, was one of the murderers of Julius Caesar, and after his death joined the party of Brutus and his namesake Cassius the conspirator. In 43 B.C. he was in command of the fleet on the coast of Asia, but after the battle of Philippi joined Sextus Pompeius in Sicily. When Pompeius, having been defeated in a naval engagement at Naulochus by the fleet of Octavian under Agrippa, fled to Asia, Cassius went over to Antony, and took part in the battle of Actium (31). He afterwards fled to Athens, where he was soon put to death by Octavian, whom he had offended by writing an abusive letter (Suetonius, _Augustus_, 4). Cassius is credited with satires, elegies, epigrams and tragedies. Some hexameters with the title _Cassii Orpheus_ are by Antonius Thylesius, an Italian of the 17th century. Horace appears to have thought well of Cassius as a poet, for he asks Tibullus whether he intends to compete with the _opuscula_ (probably the elegies) of Cassius (_Epistles_, i. 4. 3). The story in the Horace scholia, that L. Varius Rufus published his famous tragedy _Thyestes_ from an MS. which he found amongst the papers of Cassius after his death, is due to a confusion of Cassius's murderer, Q. Attius Varus, with the tragedian (Appian, _B.C._ v. 2, 139; Cicero, _ad Fam._ xii. 13; Veil. Pat. ii. 87; Orosius, vi. 19; see also the diffuse treatise of A. Weichert, _De L. Varii et Cassii Parmensis Vita et Carminibus_, 1836). Cassius Parmensis must not be confused with Cassius Etruscus (Horace, _Satires_, i. 10. 60), an improviser, who is said to have used enough paper to furnish his funeral pyre.

CASSIVELAUNUS, or CASSIVELLAUNUS, a British chieftain, ruler of the country north of the Thames, who led the native tribes against Julius Caesar on his second expedition (54 B.C.) (see BRITAIN). After several indecisive engagements, Caesar took the camp of Cassivelaunus, who was obliged to make peace on condition of paying tribute and giving hostages. But these promises were not meant to be kept, and it appears certain that the tribute was never paid. According to Bede (_Hist. Eccles._ i. 2), the remains of Cassivelaunus's entrenchment were visible seven or eight centuries later.

See Caesar, _B.G._ v. 11-22; Dio Cassius xl. 2, 3; Orosius vi. 9. 6; Eutropius vi. 17; Polyaenus, _Strategemata_, viii. 23. For the etymology of the name (which is Celtic in origin, and appears later as Caswallon) see J. Rhys, _Celtic Britain_, pp. 289-290 (1904); C.I. Elton, _Origins of English History _ (1890); and Stock's edition of Caesar, _De Bella Gallico_ (1898).

CASSOCK (Fr. _casaque_, a military cloak), a long-sleeved, close-fitting robe worn by the clergy and others engaged in ecclesiastical functions. The name was originally specially applied to the dress worn by soldiers and horsemen, and later to the long garment worn in civil life by both men and women. As an ecclesiastical term the word "cassock" came into use somewhat late (as a translation of the old names of _subtanea, vestis talaris, toga talaris_, or _tunica talaris_), being mentioned in canon 74 of 1604; and it is in this sense alone that it now survives. The origin of the word has been the subject of much speculation. It is derived through the French from the Italian _casacca_, which Florio (_Q. Anna's New World of Words_, 1611) translates as "a frock, a horseman's cote, a long cote; also a habitation or dwelling," and it is usually held that this in turn is derived from _casa_, a house (cf. the derivation of "chasuble," q.v.). This, however, though possible is uncertain. A Slav origin for the word has been suggested (Hatzfeld and Darmesteter, _Dic. gen. de la langue francaise_), and the Cossack horseman may have given to the West both the garment and the name. Or again, it may be derived from _casequin_ (Ital. _casecchino_), rather than vice versa, and this in turn from an Arabic _kazayand_ (Pers. _kashayand_), a padded jerkin; the word _kasagan_ occurring in Mid. High Ger. for a riding-cloak, and _gasygan_ in O. Fr. for a padded jerkin (Lagarde in _Gott. gelehrte Anzeiger_, April 15, 1887, p. 238).

The cassock, though part of the canonical costume of the clergy, is not a liturgical vestment. It was originally the out-of-doors and domestic dress of lay-people as well as clergy, and its survival among the latter when the secular fashions had changed is merely the outcome of ecclesiastical conservatism. In mild weather it was the outer garment; in cold weather it was worn under the tabard or chimere (q.v.) sometimes in the middle ages the name "chimere" was given to it as well as to the sleeveless upper robe. In winter the cassock was often lined with furs varying in costliness with the rank of the wearer, and its colour also varied in the middle ages with his ecclesiastical or academic status. In the Roman Catholic Church the _subtanea_ (Fr. _soutane_, Ital. _sottana_) must be worn by the clergy whenever they appear, both in ordinary life (except in Protestant countries) and under their vestments in church. It varies in colour with the wearer's rank: white for the pope, red (or black edged with red) for cardinals, purple for bishops, black for the lesser ranks: members of religious orders, however, whatever their rank, wear the colour of their religious habit. In the Church of England the cassock, which with the gown is prescribed by the above-mentioned canon of 1604 as the canonical dress of the clergy, has been continuously, though not universally, worn by the clergy since the Reformation. It has long ceased, however, to be their every-day walking dress and is now usually only worn in church, at home, or more rarely by clergy within the precincts of their own parishes. The custom of wearing the cassock under the vestments is traceable in England to about the year 1400.

The old form of English cassock was a double-breasted robe fastened at the shoulder and probably girdled. The continental, single-breasted cassock, with a long row of small buttons from neck to hem, is said to have been first introduced into England by Bishop Harris of Llandaff (1729-1738). The shortened form of cassock which survives in the bishop's "apron" was formerly widely used also by the continental clergy. Its use was forbidden in Roman Catholic countries by Pope Pius IX., but it is still worn by Roman Catholic dignitaries as part of their out-of-door dress in certain Protestant countries.

See the _Report_ of the sub-committee of Convocation _on the Ornaments of the Church and its Ministers_ (London, 1908), and authorities there cited.

CASSONE, in furniture, the Italian name for a marriage coffer. The ancient and once almost universal European custom of providing a bride with a chest or coffer to contain the household linen, which often formed the major part of her dowry, produced in Italy a special type of chest of monumental size and artistic magnificence. The cassoni of the people, although always large in size, were simple as regards ornament; but those of the nobles and the well-to-do mercantile classes were usually imposing as regards size, and adorned with extreme richness. The cassone was almost invariably much longer than the English chest, and even at a relatively early period it assumed an artistic finish such as was never reached by the chests of northern Europe, except in the case of a few of the royal _corbeilles de mariage_ made by such artists as Boulle for members of the house of France. Many of the earlier examples were carved in panels of geometrical tracery, but their characteristic ornament was either _intarsia_ or _gesso_, or a mixture of the two. Bold and massive feet, usually shaped as claws, lioncels, or other animals are also exceedingly characteristic of cassoni, most of which are of massive and sarcophagus-like proportions with moulded lids, while many of them are adorned at their corners with figures sculptured in high relief. The scroll-work inlay is commonly simple and graceful, consisting of floral or geometrical motives, or arabesques. The examples coated with gilded _gesso_ or blazoned with paintings are, however, the most magnificent. They were often made of chestnut, and decorated with flowers and foliage in a relief which, low at first, became after the Renaissance very high and sharp. The panels of the painted cassoni frequently bore representations of scriptural and mythological subjects, or incidents derived from the legends of chivalry. Nor was heraldry forgotten, the arms of the family for which the chest was made being perhaps emblazoned upon the front. These chests rarely bear dates or initials, but it is often possible to determine their history from their armorial bearings.

CASSOWARY (_Casuarius_), a genus of struthious birds, only inferior in size to the emeu and ostrich, and, according to Sir R. Owen, approximating more closely than any other living birds to the extinct moas of New Zealand. The species are all characterized by short rudimentary wings, bearing four or five barbless shafts, a few inches long, and apparently useless for purposes of flight, of running, or of defence; and by loosely webbed feathers, short on the neck, but of great length on the rump and back, whence they descend over the body forming a thick hair-like covering. They possess stout limbs, with which they kick in front, and have the inner toe armed with a long powerful claw. The common cassowary (_Casuarius galeatus_) stands 5 ft. high, and has a horny, helmet-like protuberance on the crown of its head; the front of the neck is naked and provided with two brightly-coloured wattles. It is a native of the Island of Ceram, where it is said to live in pairs, feeding on fruits and herbs, and occasionally on small animals. The mooruk, or Bennett's cassowary (_Casuarius Bennettii_), is a shorter and more robust bird, approaching in the thickness of its legs to the moas. It differs further from the preceding species in having its head crowned with a horny plate instead of a helmet. It has only been found in New Britain, where the natives are said to regard it with some degree of veneration. When captured by them shortly after being hatched, and reared by the hand, it soon becomes tame and familiar; all the specimens which have reached Europe alive have been thus domesticated by the natives. The adult bird in the wild state is exceedingly shy and difficult of approach, and, owing to its great fleetness and strength, is rarely if ever caught. It eats voraciously, and, like the ostrich, will swallow whatever comes in its way. (See EMEU.)