2016/03/07 by Tim Cornell · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Art #Classical Studies and Legal History #Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis
paper · doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.1426
openalex publication_date 2016/03/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/03
Spurius Cassius Vecellinus is recorded in the *fasti as consul in 502, 493, and 486 bce, although the name Cassius is plebeian. According to tradition he negotiated the treaty (*foedus) between Rome and the Latins in 493, which established peace and a military alliance between the two parties. A copy of the treaty survived to the time of *Cicero (Balb. 53) and its terms are outlined by *Dionysius (7) of Halicarnassus (6. 95). In 486 Cassius is said to have proposed an agrarian law for the benefit of the plebs, but was accused of aiming at kingship and condemned to death. The surviving accounts make him a forerunner of the *Gracchi and contain many anachronisms, but it does not follow that the whole episode is invented.