The Death of Caesar
Julius Caesar was one of those types who knew exactly what he wanted and wouldn't stop until he got it. Young Julius was born into a wealthy patrician family. His ancestor was said to be none other than the son of the goddess Venus.
If you were friends with Caesar you might describe him as one of the coolest guys who ever lived. If you weren't you might call him an arrogant, power-hungry jerk. But, experience made Caesar what he was. From an early age Caesar had to face adversity. His uncle was a power hungry dictator who tried to have Julius killed along with anyone else he saw as a political threat. Julius was stripped of his inheritance, his title as Head Priest for the god Jupiter, and was forced to join the army to escape his dangerous situation.
Later in life, Caesar was kidnapped by pirates and held for ransom. Caesar was so insulted that the ransom was lower than he thought someone of his stature should fetch that demanded that the pirates ask for more! After being released hunted down the pirates and had them all crucified like he had promised. The pirates must have thought it was a joke to have their captive threatening them. The joke was on them.
Caesar spent most of life–after his uncle died– between running for political offices in Rome and living the life as a soldier. Caesar’s family might have been wealthy but they didn’t have much political power, so Caesar had to rely on his wits (not his family connections) to get what he wanted.
Caesar was a master public speaker which meant that he must have been pretty good at winning people over to his side. Caesar made friends with some of Rome’s wealthiest and powerful people. Sometimes by marrying their daughters and sisters (Caesar would divorce them when he didn’t need their support). The two most important men in Rome–Cassus and Pompey–would join Caesar in ruling the Roman Republic as a Triumvirate (fancy title which means rule of three men). Together they drove out their political enemies; sometimes by using some questionable methods. Take for example the conservative politician Marcus Bilibus who opposed Caesar’s plan to give land to the poor. Caesar had his army (or rather Pompey’s) beat up Bilbus’s bodyguards and dump a bucket of excrement over his head. Bilbus wisely chose to retire immediately after.
Caesar spent most of life–after his uncle died– between running for political offices in Rome and living the life as a soldier. Caesar’s family might have been wealthy but they didn’t have much political power, so Caesar had to rely on his wits (not his family connections) to get what he wanted.
Caesar was a master public speaker which meant that he must have been pretty good at winning people over to his side. Caesar made friends with some of Rome’s wealthiest and powerful people. Sometimes by marrying their daughters and sisters (Caesar would divorce them when he didn’t need their support). The two most important men in Rome–Cassus and Pompey–would join Caesar in ruling the Roman Republic as a Triumvirate (fancy title which means rule of three men). Together they drove out their political enemies; sometimes by using some questionable methods. Take for example the conservative politician Marcus Bilibus who opposed Caesar’s plan to give land to the poor. Caesar had his army (or rather Pompey’s) beat up Bilbus’s bodyguards and dump a bucket of excrement over his head. Bilbus wisely chose to retire immediately after.
What made Caesar a true Roman hero was not that he was a politician who helped the poor– a regular Roman Robin Hood– but from his military conquests.
Caesar was a natural soldier and a career in the Roman legion suited him just fine. Caesar extended Rome’s borders into the wild barbarian lands of France and Germany. He subdued the tribes of Gaul (France) and the Celts in Britain. Something no one else had been able to achieve. His greatest military achievement came when he crossed the Rhine River into the territory of the fierce Germanic tribes who raided the border. Rather than conquering them outright, Caesar built the first bridge across the Rhine. He then led his men across the river and then marched back again to the Roman side and had the bridge dismantled. The message: the Romans can get you no matter where you are.
"Death of Caesar" by Vincenzo Camuccini. Completed in 1789.
"Beware the Ides of March"
March 15th became legendary
when William Shakespeare
first penned the famous line
in 1601 in his play Julius Caesar
Caesar’s life was the stuff of legends but it was his death that got him into the history books. Caesar planned on returning to Rome and picking up where he left off. But the Triumvirate was dead. Cassus had been killed in battle and Pompey ordered Caesar not to come back to Italy. Caesar being Caesar led his legion across the Rubicon River and launched a civil war
Pompey fled to, and was defeated in, Greece. Caesar returned to Rome and forced the Senate to declare him dictator for life. As a side note this is not as unusual as it might sound. To modern folks, dictators are evil men but in Roman times dictators were seen as temporary fixes in times of great trouble. Caesar set out to reform the troubled Republic that was filled with chaos and corruption. The old republic was falling apart.
The governors of the provinces ruled like independent kings. The conquered people outside of Italy were angry that they were seen as inferiors by the Romans and so Caesar made everyone under Roman authority a citizen with full rights. Caesar also tried to reform the greedy land practices of the Patricians that left the Plebians with practically nothing. All of these things made Caesar a hero with the common man, but an enemy of the rich and powerful who controlled the Senate.
On the infamous Ides of March (March 15th) 44 B.C. a group of conspiring Senators invited Caesar to a meeting at the Theater of Pompey. When Caesar arrived his was surrounded by the mob who stabbed him to death. Supposedly, his last words were “Et Tu Brutus” but this is probably the fiction of William Shakespeare. His friend Brutus wasn’t the only assassin. All twenty-three of the Senators had to stab Caesar once so that everyone would be equally guilty of the crime.
When Brutus and his fellow assassins came out of the theater he shouted "People of Rome, we are once again free!". The people of Rome didn’t see it this way. The poor began to riot, burning down a large portion of the Forum. The mob moved on to the house of Brutus and other Senators trying to drag them into the streets. But the Senators personal army drove the crowd back. Ironically, the Senators killed Caesar to save the Republic for a dictator. Instead, it launched another civil war. After the dust had settled, Caesar’s nephew Octavian had taken control as Rome’s first emperor–Augustus Caesar.
If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.
Julius Caesar
Cicero’s View
“Our tyrant deserved his death for having made an exception of the one thing that was theblackest crime of all . . .
Behold, here you have a man [Caesar] who was ambitious to be king of
the Roman People and master of the whole world; and he achieved it!
The man who maintains
that such an ambition is morally right is a madman, for he justifies the destruction of law and liberty . . .
“For, oh ye immortal gods! Can the most horrible and hideous of all murders—that of
fatherland—bring advantage to anybody, even though he who has committed
such a crime receives from his enslaved fellow-citizens the title of ‘Father of his Country'"
One Murder
Two Views
Dio Cassius’ View
“A [madness] fell upon certain men through jealousy of Caesar’s advancement and hatred of his
preferment to themselves caused his death unlawfully . . .
“His slayers, to be sure, declared that they had shown themselves at once destroyers of Caesar
and liberators of the people; but in reality they impiously plotted against him, and they threw the
city into disorder when at last it possessed a stable government.
“Democracy, indeed, has a fair-appearing name and conveys the impression of bringing equal
rights to all through equal laws, but its results are seen not to agree with its title. Monarchy, on
the [other hand], has an unpleasant sound, but is a most practical form of government to live
under. For it is easier to find a single excellent man than many of the
