CASSATION, COURT OF, a court of highest and last appeal in France, appointed in the case of appeal to revise the forms of a procedure in an inferior court; it consists of a president and vice-president, 49 judges, a public prosecutor called the procureur-general, and six advocates-general; it consists of three sections:  first, one to determine if the appeal should be received; second, one to decide in civil cases; and third, one to decide in criminal cases.

CASSEL (72), capital of Hesse-Cassel, an interesting town, 120 m. from Frankfort-on-Main; it is the birthplace of Bunsen.

CASSELL, JOHN, the publisher, born in Manchester; a self-made man, who knew the value of knowledge and did much to extend it (1817-1865).

CASSIANUS, JOANNUS, an Eastern ascetic; came to Constantinople, and became a pupil of Chrysostom, who ordained him; founded two monasteries in Marseilles; opposed the extreme views of Augustine in regard to grace and free-will, and human depravity; and not being able to go the length of Pelaganism, adopted SEMI-PELAGIANISM, q. v. (360-448).

CASSINI, name of a family of astronomers of the 17th and 18th centuries, of Italian origin; distinguished for their observations and discoveries affecting the comets, the planets, and the moon; they settled, father and son and grandson, in Paris, and became in succession directors of the observatory of Paris, the last of whom died in 1864, after completing in 1793 a great topographical map of France begun by his father.

CASSIODO`RUS, a Latin statesman and historian, born in Calabria; prime minister of Theodoric the Great and his successor; retired into a monastery about 70, and lived there nearly 30 years; wrote a history of the Goths, and left letters of great historical value (468-568).

CASSIOPE`IA, queen of Ethiopia, mother of Andromeda, placed after death among the constellations; a constellation well north in the northern sky of five stars in the figure of a W.

CASSIQUIA`RI, a remarkable river in Venezuela, which, like a canal, connects the Rio Negro, an affluent of the Amazon, with the Orinoco.

CASSITER`IDES, islands in the Atlantic, which the Phoenician sailors visited to procure tin; presumed to have been the Scilly Islands or Cornwall, which they adjoin.

CASSIUS, CAIUS, chief conspirator against Caesar; won over Brutus to join in the foul plot; soon after the deed was done fled to Syria, made himself master of it; joined his forces with those of Brutus at Philippi; repulsed on the right, thought all was lost; withdrew into his tent, and called his freedmen to kill him; Brutus, in his lamentation over him, called him the “last of the Romans”; d. 42 B.C.

CASSIUS, SPURIUS, a Roman, thrice chosen consul, first time 502 B.C.; subdued the Sabines, made a league with the Latins, promoted an agrarian law, the first passed, which conceded to the plebs a share in the public lands.