Ancient source texts very often convey stories in which the tragic events for the heroes were previously heralded by various strange events. Valerius Maximus tells us the story of a certain Cassius Parmensis, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar in the ides of March 44 BCE.
Cassius Parmensis came from a respected Roman family who played an important role in the founding of the city of Parma in the 2nd century BCE. As a supporter of the optimists, he supported the conspirators on Caesar’s life and took an active part in it. Then he fought on the side of Brutus and Cassius, after their defeat, he joined Sextus Pompey in Sicily. Cassius often mocked Octavian, who accused him of having received the name Caesar because of his homosexual relationship with his later adopted father. Finally, Cassius, seeing no real counterbalance to Octavian and Antony, decided to tie up with the latter, who, however, failed in the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE.
Cassius, the last living murderer of Caesar, fled to Athens, where he was hiding in one of the houses. One night he had a vision – a large black figure with dishevelled hair and beard entered his room. Terrified, Cassius asked who he was, and the entity replied, “Evil Genius”. Cassius summoned the slaves and asked them if they had seen any intruder; they replied in the negative. Cassius went back to sleep, and the entity appeared again to him at the bedside. Unable to sleep, Cassius told his slaves to stay with him and keep the light on.
As it turns out, Cassius was soon killed at the behest of the victorious Octavian Augustus by Lucius Varus, who thus avenged his father.
