In 44 BC, at the celebration of the Lupercalia, Julius Caesar, seated on a gilded chair, publicly refused the diadem of kingship offered to him by Antony. Nevertheless, he was already ruling as a dictator: a year earlier, following his victory in the civil war, he had chosen to be dictator for life and consul for ten years. Therefore, this particular gesture was considered by a large portion of the Romans to be hypocritical.
A few days later, another incident would confirm the view that Caesar had ambitions to be crowned king (rex), despite his refusal to accept the crown offered to him by Antony. When it was discovered that royal diadems had been placed on his statues, they were removed by the tribuni plebis, the people’s officials, and one of the perpetrators was brought to trial. Accused of insulting his dignity, Caesar dismissed them, although, according to Appian, the office of tribuni plebis was sacred and inviolable according to law. Their dismissal thus violated this previously accepted framework, while also demonstrating to conservatives in the Senate that Caesar threatened their own traditional rights and privileges.
The participation of Marcus Brutus in the conspiracy against Caesar was decisive. He himself had been appointed city prefect for that year, having won a pardon for his life from Caesar in the civil war. For many, because he was considered a descendant of Brutus who, according to Livy, had ousted the last king of Rome and established the Republic half a century earlier, he was expected to save it once more. In reality, however, his reasons for joining appear to have been more personal as, according to Suetonius, his mother Servilia was Caesar’s mistress, while her daughter Junia Tertia, Brutus’ half-sister, was also suspected and wife of Gaius Cassius Longinus, had been seduced by Caesar. At the same time, his uncle was Cato the Younger, leader of the Optimates, the conservative patricians who supported the traditions of the Republic.
In any case, the assassination had to be done immediately, as Caesar was about to leave Rome to avenge the death of Crassus by the Parthians. This campaign would not only distance him from Rome and the conspirators, but he would most likely return even stronger.
He himself had certain suspicions and perceived some ominous signs. Plutarch, for example, reports that the night before his assassination, at dinner with Lepidus, when the conversation turned to what would be the best kind of death for a man, Caesar replied that the sudden would be and unexpected death. Later that night, his wife, Calpurnia, is said to have dreamed of his body covered in blood and tried to stop him from leaving the house. In the end Caesar chose to attend the Senate meeting on March 15, as otherwise he would have disappointed those who were already there waiting for him, and would have shown further disrespect.
As he took his seat, the conspirators gathered around him under the pretense of making a request. This was their chance. They started stabbing him until he fell to the ground. Although Suetonius records that Caesar died “without a word,” other writers have written that Brutus was accused in Greek with the words, “And you, teknon?”
The situation would quickly become chaotic. The death toll would multiply, with the conspirators sentenced to death under the law of Pedius (Caesar’s nephew).
Rome would not know peace for several years after the assassination, and would eventually turn the page for good. The Imperial period, heralded by Caesar’s dictatorship, began with Augustus being the first to ascend the throne.
Column editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
