At the age of only seventeen, Caesar’s grandnephew Octavian was already a man to be reckoned with. Beside him was Gaius Octavius, better known as Octavian. Behind them came Caesar’s protégé, Decimus, fresh from a term as governor of Gaul (roughly, France).
He was Caesar’s candidate to be one of Rome’s two consuls next year, the highest-ranking public officials after the dictator. In the position of honor beside Caesar was Marcus Antonius-better known today as Mark Antony. In the first stood Dictator Gaius Julius Caesar, glowing with his victory over rebel forces in Hispania (Spain). IN AUGUST 45 B.C., SEVEN months before the Ides of March, a procession entered the city of Mediolanum, modern Milan, in the hot and steamy northern Italian plain. Brutus and Cassius raised an army in Greece but Antony and Octavian defeated them.Īn original, new perspective on an event that seems well known, The Death of Caesar is “one of the most riveting hour-by-hour accounts of Caesar’s final day I have read.An absolutely marvelous read” ( The Times, London). Mark Antony made a brilliant speech-not “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” as Shakespeare had it, but something inflammatory that caused a riot. The killers left the body in the Senate and Caesar’s allies held a public funeral. But after the assassination everything went wrong. The last was a leading general and close friend of Caesar’s who felt betrayed by the great man: He was the mole in Caesar’s camp. The principal plotters were Brutus, Cassius (both former allies of Pompey), and Decimus. The conspirators wanted to return Rome to the days when the Senate ruled, but Caesar hoped to pass along his new powers to his family, especially Octavian. Why was Caesar killed? For political reasons, mainly. “ The Death of Caesar provides a fresh look at a well-trodden event, with superb storytelling sure to inspire awe” ( The Philadelphia Inquirer). He was, says author Barry Strauss, the last casualty of one civil war and the first casualty of the next civil war, which would end the Roman Republic and inaugurate the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman Senate on March 15, 44 BC-the Ides of March according to the Roman calendar. Only a month after Caesar’s declaration, a group of senators, among them Marcus Junius Brutus, Caesar’s second choice as heir, and Gaius Cassius Longinus assassinated Caesar in fear of his absolute power.In this story of the most famous assassination in history, “the last bloody day of the Republic has never been painted so brilliantly” ( The Wall Street Journal).
His increasing power and great ambition agitated many senators who feared Caesar aspired to be king. In 44 B.C., Caesar declared himself dictator for life. He also granted citizenship to foreigners living within the Roman Republic. At the same time, he sponsored the building of the Forum Iulium and rebuilt two city-states, Carthage and Corinth. He wielded his power to enlarge the senate, created needed government reforms, and decreased Rome’s debt. Returning to Italy, Caesar consolidated his power and made himself dictator. This sparked a civil war between Caesar’s forces and forces of his chief rival for power, Pompey, from which Caesar emerged victorious. When his rivals in Rome demanded he return as a private citizen, he used these riches to support his army and marched them across the Rubicon River, crossing from Gaul into Italy. Throughout his eight-year governorship, he increased his military power and, more importantly, acquired plunder from Gaul. His Roman troops conquered Gallic tribes by exploiting tribal rivalries. Returning to Rome, he formed political alliances that helped him become governor of Gaul, an area that included what is now France and Belgium. Seizing the opportunity, Caesar advanced in the political system and briefly became governor of Spain, a Roman province. During his youth, the Roman Republic was in chaos. Julius Caesar was a Roman general and politician who named himself dictator of the Roman Empire, a rule that lasted less than one year before he was famously assassinated by political rivals in 44 B.C.Ĭaesar was born on July 12 or 13 in 100 B.C.