Ilakiyaa Sellathurai Y11 (London)
Julius Caesar was well-loved by the people, as he was a great and successful military leader and introduced many necessary reforms and laws, bringing prosperity to Rome. However, he started to become more and more arrogant and was becoming more of a king than a ruler of the Republic. Therefore, many of the senators believed that the salvation of the Roman Republic relied on the death of Julius Caesar.
Gaius Julius Caesar was a great military leader and was also able to lead the Republic well. He claimed to have killed almost twenty million people in fifty decisive battles, while he was a Roman general. He was well loved by the people of Rome, as he made several significant reforms, such as providing gladiatorial games and banquets, building a public library, and creating a new calendar that we still use today. To solve the issue of high levels of violence and unemployment in the city of Rome, Caesar provided jobs through public work projects and made the streets of the city much safer.
Caesar was named dictator for life in February 44 BCE. Many in the Senate believed that their voices were not being heard and they became more and more annoyed at Caesar’s increasing arrogance. His birth month, Quinctilus was renamed Julius (July). In processions an ivory statue of him was carried next to the statues of Roman gods. Wearing the purple regalia of ancient Roman kings, he sat in a golden chair while attending the Senate. He also often did not stand up out of respect when members of the Senate approached him. The Senate became very angry at Caesar’s conceit and believed that he was becoming more of a king or divine figure rather than a ruler. After conquering Gaul, instead of listening to the Senate and disbanding his army and returning to Rome, he crossed the Rubicon and fought a civil war with fellow Roman commander Pompey. He rose victorious and returned to Rome in triumphant garments and a laurel crown. Many members of the senate were angered by this, as they were friends and supporters of Pompey. His arrogance was exemplified at the festival of Lupercalia, where Mark Antony tried to place a wreathed laurel on Caesar’s head. Caesar refused the diadem and stated that Jupiter was the only king of the Romans. Many believed that his response was ingenuine and even thought that he had staged this entire event, to maybe see how the people would react and support him to become king. He was becoming more like a king than a ruler. The conspirators ultimately believed that to save the Roman Republic they had to kill Caesar.
There were at least 60 members of the senate involved in the conspiracy and were led by Marcus Brutus, Gaius Cassius and Decimus Brutus. There were many omens leading up to the Ides of March. Caesar’s horses were seen to weep while they were grazing on the banks of the Rubicon. A bird carrying a sprig of laurel was eaten by a larger bird, when it entered the Theatre of Pompey. Another omen was that Calpurnia, Caesar’s wife, had a dream, where she saw Caesar bleeding to death in her arms. A soothsayer called Spurinna warned him of the dangers that come no later than the Ides of March. However, Caesar did not care for these omens. Though he was also very sick that day and hesitant about going to the Senate, one of the lead conspirators Decimus came and convinced Caesar to attend the Senate. However, Suetonius argues that Caesar may have actually known about the plot and willingly went to his death, because of his ill-heath, as he ‘loathed the prospect of a lingering end – he wanted a sudden one’. On March 15, 44 BCE, the Ides of March, Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times in the Theatre of Pompey.
The conspirators had murdered Caesar successfully; however, they did not prepare properly for the aftermath of his death. Two days later, the Senate made a compromise with Mark Antony, where the conspirators would not be punished for the murder and Caesar’s laws would stay intact. The conspirators then all fled Rome, as peace could now no longer be achieved and their goal of returning Rome to a Republic was destroyed. There were a number of civil wars that took place after the murder, where all the conspirators met their ends: some died in shipwreck, some in battle and some committed suicide. While all this was happening, Octavian the adopted son of Caesar, who used his great political skills, began to rise into power. In the third and final civil war between Mark Antony and Cleopatra against Octavian, Octavian or Caesar Augustus was victorious, becoming the first emperor of the Roman Empire.
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