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Cassius Longinus
Hellenistic rhetorician and philosophical critic
Years: 213 - 273
Cassius Longinus (c. 213 – 273) is a Hellenistic rhetorician and philosophical critic.
He is perhaps a native of Emesa in Syria.
He studies at Alexandria under Ammonius Saccas and Origen the Pagan, and teaches for thirty years in Athens, one of his pupils being Porphyry.
Longinus does not embrace the Neoplatonism being developed at this time by Plotinus, but continues as a Platonist of the old type and his reputation as a literary critic is immense.
During a visit to the east, he becomes a teacher, and subsequently chief counselor to Zenobia, queen of Palmyra.
It is by his advice that she endeavors to regain her independence from Rome.
Emperor Aurelian, however, crushes the revolt, and Longinus is executed.
