Hill, George Francis: Historical Roman coins: from the earliest times to the reign of Augustus (London: Constable & Co. Ltd, 1909)

HISTORICAL ROMAN COINS
Of the three Cassian coins, No. 37 is generally
attributed to C. Cassius Longinus, son of L. Cassius
Longinus Ravilla. No. 38 is given to Q. Cassius
Longinus, quaestor to Ponipeius in Spain in 54 b.c.,
and notorious for his harsh treatment of the pro-
vincials. His coinage probably dates from about
58 b.c. The third, No. 39, probably belongs to
L. Cassius Longinus, who seems to have been
triumvir of the mint about 52 b.c.
It was Ravilla who, in 137 b.c., as tribune of the
plebs, carried the second lex tabellaria^ extending the
process of voting by ballot to the public tribunals ; it
had been introduced two years before for the elections
of magistrates. He it was also who, when the deci-
sion of the Pontifex, Lucius Metellus, in the trial of
the Vestal Virgins in 113 b.c., was regarded as too
lenient, was appointed president of the commission to
re-hear the case. The lex labellaria was one of the
most popular of democratic measures, and Ravilla was
therefore regarded as an especial champion of liberty.
That is why Libertas figures on the coinage of his
son.1 The voting urn on the obverse, however, refers
not to this reform, but to Ravilla’s action in the affair
of the Vestals. The same is the case with the urn and
the voting tablet with the letters AC (absolvo, condemno}
1 G. Cassius must have been moneyer at the latest about 104 b.c.
(he was consul in 96), so that the events alluded to on his coins were
very recent.

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