Casca Longinus

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Casca Rufio Longinius, also known as Casca Longinus, or simply Casca: The Eternal Mercenary, is a character in a series of military historical novels, written by Barry Sadler called Casca: (the title after the semicolon was indicative of the particular adventure contained in that novel). He is a combination of two characters from Christian folklore, Longinus and the Wandering Jew, an immortal soldier.

The original author, Barry Sadler, was a decorated war hero, who recorded "The Ballad of the Green Berets" in 1966 - earning him a gold record for the single, and another for the album.

The origin of the character begins at Golgotha, as the soldier who drove the spear into Jesus Christ on the cross, relieving him from his torment. For this, Jesus blesses or curses him to an eternal existence, until Jesus comes again to the Earth. Drops of blood from Jesus fall on Casca, and when wiping a hand across his mouth, a drop of blood touches his tongue, causing him to react as if poisoned. He begins to realize his physical change shortly after killing another man in a fight that involves a prostitute. He is disciplined by his commanding officer, receiving a caning on the soles of his feet, and notices that the wounds on his feet heal within a day of the punishment, which normally should have crippled him for weeks. As years pass, he notices he doesn't age, forcing him to leave the first woman he truly loved after many years together, when she starts asking questions about his never aging appearance. In another story, another woman he loved receives a knife wound causing her to bleed profusely, and in need of a blood transfusion, Casca offers his blood, believing that a transfusion would give him an eternal partner in life, but has to witness the woman's inadvertent death from receiving his blood, which poisons her.

There are 27 novels about this character, covering his existence over two thousand years of wandering in all parts of the world. The first few were written by Sadler, the next dozen or so were written by other authors under his name, and numbers 23 and 24 were written by Paul Dengelegi after Sadler's death. The latest books, Casca 25: Halls of Montezuma (released September 2006), and Casca 26: Johnny Reb (released October 2007), and Casca 27: The Confederate (June 2008) has been written by Casca website owner Tony Roberts. Further novels in the series are planned and Casca 28: The Avenger in next to be published, due out October 2008.

While his location, and circumstances change in each story, Casca remains a soldier. The 'Sadler era' novels are not especially long, each running about two hundred pages. The later books are longer, reflecting the changing demands of book publishers.