![]() When elected “dictator for life” by the senate, fears swirled that Caesar would have too much power. ![]() Thanks to his popularity among the people, Caesar maintained enough support in the Senate to secure total rule through legal means. Sulla’s reign was temporary whereas Caesar secured a lifetime appointment. When Caesar crossed the Rubicon River with an army in 49 BCE, he emulated the Roman general Sulla who returned to Rome from civil war to serve as dictator. There were several reasons for the ultimate betrayal of Julius Caesar, and they date back to one of the most famous events in Roman history. Whether factual or fabricated for poetic effect, Caesar’s fabled last words reflect a sense of betrayal that stuck him like the daggers in his back. ![]() Only those present in that stone echo chamber could know for sure what Caesar’s final words were. He had taken Brutus’s mother Servilia as a lover and consequently thought of Brutus as a son. But it cannot survive treason from within … for the traitor appears not to be a traitor … he infects the body politic so it can no longer resist.” -Marcus Tullius CiceroĬaesar recognized Brutus among the crowd of his assailants, and supposedly uttered the phrase, “ et tu, Brute? ” (“you too, Brutus?”) before collapsing within his toga. “A nation can survive its fools, even the ambitious. Together, Cassius and Brutus convinced more senators to partake so that the murder would be seen as an act of patriotism rather than revenge. It wasn't difficult to persuade Brutus, as he was proud of his aristocratic heritage and felt Caesar had gone too far by naming himself dictator of Rome. ![]() A believer in traditional Republican values, Cassius’s sense of duty to the Republic boiled over, and he convinced Brutus to join the assassination. Despite the formal reconciliation, Caesar’s authoritarian ways and callous disregard for the Senate angered them. Following their loss, they reconciled with Caesar and were given comfortable arrangements within the Republic. The two fought on behalf of Pompey in the Battle at Pharsalus. Leaders of the Conspiracy: Brutus and LonginusĬaesar’s assassins took him by surprise, but the attack had been meticulously orchestrated by two men he considered to be friends: Brutus and Cassius. His body was stabbed 23 times, making it difficult to discern who killed Julius Caesar.Ī reconstruction of the Theatre of Pompey by Jan Goeree (Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, via Wikimedia Commons ) Approximately 50 to 60 senators attacked Caesar with their daggers drawn. Spearheaded by the senators Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, the assassination took place in the debating chamber of the Theatre of Pompey. Just two months later, on March 15, the infamous ides of March, Caesar’s assassination would rattle the Republic. Following his defeat of the republican Senate’s troops, Caesar seized power and became the dictator of the Roman Republic, in 44 BCE. For the sake of the Republic, Caesar would have to fall.Ĭaesar returned from The Battle of Pharsalus victorious over his rival Pompey. They could not stand idly by as Rome fell into the lap of a self-righteous dictator. A group of senators, all friends and fellow Romans, saw the dictator as a threat to Rome’s political stability and as an affront to the ideals of their Republic. Shortly after his life appointment as the dictator of Rome, the mighty Caesar’s days were cut short. Caesar’s rise to power frustrated aristocratic nobles for the way he circumvented republican ideals, never hesitating to step on senators’ toes along the way.įor a deeper look at the life and death of Julius Caesar, check out the MagellanTV series I, Caesar: The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. A man of the people, he maintained a ‘common touch’ while leading civil wars across the Republic. Julius Caesar rose through the ranks of Rome’s elite to reestablish his family’s name while cultivating a fortune for himself. What led to the murder, and what were its consequences? In one of history’s most gruesome assassinations, Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by members of the Roman Senate in 44 BCE.
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