Why was Julius Caesar killed?
Everyone knows Julius Caesar, but few know why this very important figure of ancient Rome was really killed. Let’s find out together.
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman military, politician, consul, dictator, pontiff, orator and writer, considered one of the most important and influential characters in history.
He played a pivotal role in the transition of the government system from republican to imperial form. He was dictator of Rome at the end of 49 BC, in 47 BC, in 46 BC. with ten-year office and from 44 BC as perpetual dictator, and for this reason considered by Suetonius the first of the twelve Caesars, later synonymous with the Roman emperor. With the conquest of Gaul, he extended the dominion of the Roman res publica to the Atlantic Ocean and the Rhine; he led the Roman armies to invade Britain and Germany for the first time and to fight in Spain, Greece, Egypt, Pontus and Africa.
Cesaricide is defined as the assassination of Caesar, which took place on March 15, 44 BC. (the Ides of March), by a group of about twenty senators who considered themselves guardians and defenders of republican tradition and order and who, by their culture and education, were opposed to any form of personal power. Fearing that Caesar wanted to become king of Rome, a variable number of about 60 or 80 senators, led by “Gaius Cassius, Mark and Decimus Brutus” plotted to kill the dictator. Among them, in addition to the Pompeians and the republicans, there were some supporters of Caesar who were pushed to carry out this assassination mainly for personal reasons: out of rancor, envy and disappointment for lack of recognition and compensation.
The Ides of March (Latin: Idus Martiae) were a public holiday dedicated to the god of war, Mars. The term idi referred to the 15th day of the months of March, May, July and October, and to the 13th day of the other months. The session in the Senate on March 15 was perhaps the last favorable occasion for the elimination of Caesar who three days later would have to leave for a campaign against the Getae and the Parthians and it was no coincidence that Caesar’s friends had spread an alleged prophecy of the Books Sibillini in which it was stated that the Parthians would be defeated by a king.
March 15 was then the right day for the assassination of Caesar because a party was scheduled in honor of Anna Perenna, the ancient Roman goddess who presided over the perpetual renewal of the year, to be performed in the Theater of Pompey and Decimo Brutus had allocated in the Curia di Pompeo, seat of the assembly of senators, a certain number of gladiators under the declared pretext of organizing the shows.
Often the expression ides of March is used to indicate a crucial date just like that of the assassination of Julius Caesar.
Thus Suetonius then describes the assassination of Caesar:
Lucio Tillio Cimbro (center) shows the petition and pulls Caesar’s tunic, while one of the two Casca brothers prepares to stab him from behind. Painting by Karl Theodor von Piloty.
“While he took his seat, the conspirators surrounded him under the pretext of honoring him and immediately Cimbro Tillio, who had taken on the task of giving the signal, came closer to him, as if to ask him a favor. Cesare however refused to listen to him and with a gesture made him understand to postpone the matter to another moment; then Tillio grabbed his toga from behind and while Cesare shouted:
“But this is good and good violence!” one of the two Casca wounded him, hitting him just below the throat. Cesare, grabbed Casca’s arm, hit him with the stylus, then tried to throw himself forward, but was stopped by another wound. When he noticed that they were attacking him from all sides with daggers in his hands, he wrapped the toga around his head and with his left hand he slipped the hem down to his knees, to die more decently, with the lower part of his body covered. .
So he was pierced by twenty-three stabs, with a single groan, emitted in a whisper after the first blow; according to some he would have shouted to Marcus Brutus, who rushed against him: “You too, son?”. He remained there for some time, lifeless, while everyone fled, until he, loaded on a litter, with his arm hanging out of him, was taken home by three slaves.
According to what the doctor Antistio reported, of so many wounds none of him was fatal except for the one he received second in the chest.
The conspirators wanted to throw the dead man’s body into the Tiber, confiscate his assets and cancel all his acts, but they renounced the intention for fear of the consul Marco Antonio and the commander of the cavalry Lepidus.
The death occurred in Rome in today’s Sacred Area of Torre Argentina. Between the Argentine theater and the circular temple (Tempio della Fortuna) the Curia of Pompey once stood, the place of Caesar’s death which, according to tradition, took place at the foot of the statue of Pompey erected there.
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