Avidius Cassius
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
- biography included in the Historia Augusta