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Who killed julius11/28/2023 ![]() ![]() Scholars disagree on just who was the on the side of good. ( How blood and betrayed turned Rome from republic to empire.) The poet Dante, however, took a different stance: Brutus, in killing the man who spared him, was doomed to the lowest levels of hell. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar was based on Plutarch's account of Brutus. Plutarch's Life of Brutus, Osgood noted, is quite sympathetic in comparison to surviving documents naming other enemies of Caesar and his successors. It is this moral dilemma that has caused debate over whether or not Brutus should be branded a villain. Brutus may have felt both shame over accepting Caesar's clemency and obligation to do Cato honor by continuing his quest to “save” the republic from Caesar, Osgood speculated. The final blow came when his uncle Cato, a father figure to Brutus, killed himself after losing in a battle against Caesar in 46 B.C. This lineage, coupled with a strong interest in the Greek idea of tyranicide, disposed Brutus to have little patience with perceived power grabbers. Ahala, an ancestor of Marcus Brutus's mother, had killed another tyrant, Spurius Maelius. Ancestor Junius Brutus was credited with throwing out the last king of Rome, Tarquin Superbus, in 509 B.C. Brutus's family had a tradition of rejecting authoritarian powers. And although Brutus had fought against Caesar during Rome's recent civil war, he was spared from death and later promoted by Caesar to the office of praetor.īrutus, however, was torn in his allegiance to Caesar. His mother, Servilia, was one of Caesar's lovers. In the play, Caesar sees Brutus among the crowd of assassins and says of the betrayal with his dying breath, " Et tu, Brute?"īrutus's involvement in the murder is made tragic given his close affiliations with Caesar. It is safe to say, however, that in the mind of Marcus Brutus, who helped mastermind the attack, the threat Caesar posed to the republican system was clear.īrutus was famously portrayed in William Shakespeare's J ulius Caesar as a tragic hero, while Caesar was written as an unequivocal tyrant. Whether or not Caesar was a true tyrant is debated still to this day. ( These blow-by-blow accounts reveal what happened on the Ides of March.) What did Brutus have to do with it all? The conspirators gathered around Caesar and stabbed him to death as the rest of the Roman Senate watched in horror. Two days before his departure, he was summoned to the Senate for what would be a fateful meeting. The plot's conspirators, who termed themselves “the liberators,” had to move quickly as Caesar had plans to leave Rome for a campaign against the Parthians. He notes that some historians suspect that Caesar might have been attempting to establish a cult in his honor in a move toward deification. Normally, the honor was reserved for deities. “Caesar was the first living Roman ever to appear on the coinage,” Josiah Osgood, a historian at Georgetown University told Nat Geo in 2004. This action may have sealed his fate in the minds of his enemies.Ĭaesar had pushed the envelope for some time before his death. ![]() While Caesar had made pointed and public displays of turning down offers of kingship, he showed no reluctance to accept the office of “dictator for life” in February of 44 B.C. According to legend, they expelled their last one in 509 B.C. ( What did Julius Caesar really look like?) A special temporary office, that of dictator, was established for use only during times of extreme civil unrest. A body of citizens forming the Senate proposed legislation, which general people's assemblies then approved by vote. Praetors were one step below consuls in the power chain and handled judicial matters. Why did Romans plot to kill Caesar?īy the time of Caesar, Rome had a long-established republican government headed by two consuls with joint powers. That iconic phrase came to represent a day of abrupt change, setting off a ripple of repercussions throughout Roman society and beyond. The ides simply marked the appearance of the full moon.īut Romans would soon learn to beware the Ides of March. It has fascinated scholars and writers ever since.įor ancient Romans living before that event, however, an ides was merely one of several common calendar terms used to mark monthly lunar events. Julius Caesar's bloody assassination on March 15, 44 B.C., forever marked March 15, or the Ides of March, as a day of infamy. ![]()
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