Beware the Ides of March

December 9th, 2013
Beware the Ides of March Gaius Julius Caesar is debatably one of the most famous Roman figures in history. One reason for his popularity could be his well-known assassination on March 5th, 44 BC, also known as the Ides of March. Many adaptions have been written of this event, but the two ancient authors who have accounted the death are Plutarch and Suetonius. Neither of the authors were present at the murder (seeing as how neither of them were born yet), but instead received the details of the event from someone who saw the incident. Both accounts are probably correct, but came from different sources. Caesar’s death showed the high stakes of the Roman government and threat of being an enemy of the Senate, was influential to the time period, and influenced many things long after Rome fell.
The Roman government was in ruin when Julius Caesar came to power in 49 BC. Rome was too large to control itself, and the only seat with effective power was the dictator. Caesar was the first emperor of Rome, and the Senate hated that he called himself king. The members of senate deemed him a tyrant, as seen in Plutarch: “Therefore the plots which had previously been formed separately, often by groups of two or three, were united in a general conspiracy, since even the populace no longer were pleased with present conditions, but both secretly and openly rebelled at his tyranny and cried out for defenders of their liberty.” (Plutarch LXXX) The Senate also wanted Caesar out of power because each of them wanted to become the dictator themselves, which would have resulted in further conflict and a bloodier war than the final Roman war.
There were sixty accomplices who were lead by Brutus, Cassius, and Marcus. The original plan was to assassinate Caesar at the elections; the group was going to split up in two divisions “so that while some hurled him from the bridge…as he summoned the tribes to vote, the rest might wait below and slay him.” (Plutarch LXXX) The next meeting of the Senate was suddenly planned for the Ides of March, and the plan dissolved. Caesar’s death was foreseen many times, but he ignored the prophecies and went to the meeting anyway. When he was seated, he was taken by his robe and stabbed twenty two times, but only the wound he received in the heart was fatal. He was left on the floor of the curia to die until some slaves came by and took him home on a stretcher. Caesar’s death affected many individuals, and the seat of power in Rome was now in need of a successor. This need for a commander caused the formation of the Second Triumvirate. The alliance was made up of three leaders; Marcus Lepidus, Marc Antony, and Octavian, the last of whom was Caesar’s son. Marc Antony married Octavia, Octavian’s sister, which formed a bond between Octavian and Marc Antony. However, this bond was broken when Marc Antony instigated his romance with Cleopatra, causing a rift between himself and Octavian, sequentially leading to the Battle of Actium. The Battle of Actium was the first of many battles in the war that ended Rome. Caesar’s death was not only influential to the Roman empire, but also to forthcoming cultures. The event influenced Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, and has been a major topic in history for hundreds of years. It symbolizes the beginning of the fall of Rome, as Caesar’s assassination started a chain of events leading up to the final Roman war that destroyed Rome. The killing of Julius Caesar was necessary to history, and was also proof of the corruption of the Senate and it’s members. The assassination was one of the most significant turning points of Roman culture and destroyed an entire culture as well as a man.

Plutarch. Caesar. Text. 09 Dec. 2013.
The Science Channel. "How Did the Murder of Caesar Initiate the Second Triumvirate? - Curiosity." Curiosity. The Science Channel, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2013.
"Julius Caesar." PBS. PBS, 2006. Web. 09 Dec. 2013.