Assassination of Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar took power in Rome after years of civil wars. Further signals indicating that he might wish to restore the monarchy sparked a conspiracy and his death. The assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE is a decisive step towards the fall of the Roman republic.

The opposition to Caesar was headed by Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus. Longinus was previously associated with Pompey, after the defeat at Pharsalus he surrendered to Caesar, but still, he loudly expressed his dislike of him. It was similar to Brutus, who, however, was trusted by Caesar; moreover, Caesar had an affair with his mother, Servilia.

Reasons why some of the aristocracies hated Caesar

After the battle of Munda in Spain (45 BCE), in which Caesar finally dealt with his only opponents, the sons of Pompey – Sextus Pompey and Gnaeus Pompey no one was able to threaten Caesar’s authority anymore. On February 14, 44 BCE the Senate proclaimed Caesar the perpetual dictator (dictator in perpetuum), the high priest (pontifex maximus), emperor and “father of the fatherland.” Caesar concentrated in his hand enormous power, unprecedented in the Republic. Caesar did not fail to hide his unique position and when the senators visited him, he did not even get up at the sight of them.

In the Eternal City, rumours grew more and more about Caesar’s plans to proclaim himself king of Rome. However, when he was called the king of Rome, he replied: “I am Caesar, not a king”¹. His subordinate and commander, Marcus Antony, repeatedly tried to put the royal diadem on Caesar’s head; this one, however, refused².

Caesar refuses to put on the crown

Moreover, one of the members of the college of fifteen husbands (the college for consulting the Sibylian books) – Lucius Cotta – applied for Caesar to be king because, as the holy books said, only the king could defeat the Parthians, and Caesar was planning an invasion east at that time.

All these events hastened the decision of the conspirators to murder Caesar in March 44 BCE.

Conspiracy

Marcus Junius Brutus after Caesar’s death he allied with Cassius, with whom he headed the republicans and he was fighting the triumvirs. After the defeat at the battle of Philippi in 42 BCE with the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian Augustus, Brutus committed suicide.

The origins of the conspiracy are related to the talks in February 44 BCE of Cassius Longinus, Marcus Brutus and Decimus Brutus, who were increasingly afraid that Caesar would proclaim himself king. Cassius Longinus was a former soldier of Crassus in the Party expedition (one of the few to survive); Marcus Brutus originally joined Pompey, however, after his defeat at Pharsalus, he received Caesar’s forgiveness and held the office of governor in Pre-Alpesque Gaul, and then the pretext; Decimus Brutus, in turn, was Caesar’s officer in Gaul. They gradually included more conspirators into their ranks, so as to be able to form a group capable of self-defence, but at the same time small enough to keep a secret. We know the names of nineteen conspirators, they are: Gaius Cassius Longinus, Marcus Brutus (dealt the final blow), Publius Casca (dealt the first blow), Gaius Casca (dealt the death blow), Tilius Cimber, Gaius Trebon