3/15/44 B.C. - After winning a civil war against the supporters of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (better known to history as general and politician, Pompey the Great), and declaring himself to be the Dictator of Rome, at the height of his powers, 55-year-old Gaius Julius Caesar agrees to meet with the Roman Senate at the Curia of Pompey of the Theatre of Pompey (one of a handful of halls where the Roman Senate meets, the usual, the Roman Forum, is being refurbished by funds Caesar supplies) to discuss his leadership of the country, and finds himself accosted by sixty senators not happy with his rule, armed with knives the men readily put into use. The bloody Ides of March assassination sees the end of Caesar, the beginning of yet another Roman Civil War, and the road ahead that leads to the birth of the Roman Empire.
Assassination
Born into a patrician Roman family named Julii that is said to be related to the legendary Trojan prince, Aeneas, and his powerful mother, the Roman God, Venus, on July 12 of the year 100 B.C., Caesar's father, also named Gaius Julius Caesar, is the governor of the province of Asia, his mother, Aurelia, comes from the Rutilia family of Roman consuls, and his aunt, Julia, is married to general and statesman, Gaius Marius (he oversees the change of Rome's military forces from militia to professionals, improves the structure and use of the javelin, makes changes to the logistical structure of the army, is hailed as "the third founder of Rome," and is a Roman consul seven different times before dying at the age of 71). Head of the family at 16 when his father dies suddenly in 85 B.C., Julius is made the high priest of Jupiter and marries the daughter of the politically powerful Roman consul, Lucius Cornelius Cinna. On the outs with the death of Marius in 86 B.C., Julius will be stripped of his family inheritance, his wife's dowry, and his priesthood, by power rival, Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix. In hiding until his mother's family buys him out of trouble with Sulla, Julius uses the loss of his priesthood to enter the military (a high priest of Jupiter is forbidden to touch a horse, sleep three nights outside his own bed, spend one night outside the city limits of Rome, and can't look upon an army of any kind), and deems that should Sulla change his mind about him, he should be as far away from Rome as is possible at the time; the distance desired accomplished by first serving under Marcus Minucius Thermus in Asia, and then Servilius Isauricus in Cilcia (part of what is now the country of Turkey). Proving to be a natural at the military arts of the times, Julius wins a Civic Crown for his actions during the Siege of Mytilene and draws the difficult task of getting the fleet of King Nicomedes to commit his naval fleet to Rome's operations in the Mediterranean. Taken prisoner by pirates as he is passing through the Aegean Sea, Julius displays his mental acuity and ruthlessness by telling his captors that the sum demanded for his release should be raised from 20 talents of silver to 50, and by fulfilling the threat he's made to the pirates while awaiting his ransom ... he will raise a fleet, hunt down the pirates, and then crucifying the men while they are still alive (feeling a "little" lenient, Julius will have the men's throats cut instead of nailing them to a cross until they die). Back in Rome once Sulla passes in 78 B.C., Julius begins his political career as an elected quaestor in 69 B.C., the same year in which he delivers the funeral oration of his aunt Julia and loses his wife Cornelia after 13 years of marriage (said to be as a result of a badly birthed child which also dies), before marrying his rival Sulla's granddaughter, Pompeia (they will divorce for political and religious reasons related to Rome's Bona Dea scandal in 62 B.C.). Continuing his climb (he has now become aligned with Marcus Lincinius Crassus, the richest man In Rome and the general that puts down the Spartacus slave revolt) in 65 B.C., Julius is elected curule aedile (a position responsible for the maintenance of public buildings, the regulation of public festivals, and ensuring public order in Rome) and treats the citizens of Rome to a series of lavish games that win him public support, which he uses to get elected to the post of pontifex maximus in 62 B.C. (chief priest of the state religion). Appointed to be praetor and govern Hispania Ulterior (the western part of Spain's and Portugal's Iberian Peninsula), he begins to show the military genius that will make him one of the most powerful men in ancient history.
Captured By Pirates
After conquering two local tribes and being declared "imperator" by his men in 60 B.C. (an honorific title claimed by certain military commanders after a great victory, his troops will hail him again with the title in 45 B.C.), Julius is elected Consul, and joins forces with Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in what will be called the First Triumvirate, the three men are the most powerful citizens in the Roman Republic. But the men are all envious of one another. Given four legions to keep the natives of the outer provinces docile, Julius adds two more legions to his command and drives into Gaul (modern day France, Belgium, and western Germany), hoping victories there will give him a base from which to expand his powers. First to experience the wrath of Caesar are the Helvetii, conquered after losing the Battle of Bibracte (at one point the Romans are surrounded, but manage to fight their way out of trouble). The Helvetii negated, the general then turns on the Germanic Suebi peoples, beating them at the Battle of Vosges in large measure due to the cavalry work of the son of Crassus, Publius. From there, in 57 B.C., Julius drives west into what is today Belgium, and after surviving an ambush which almost bests the Romans at Sabis (Caesar personal leadership and the fighting discipline of the legions turns a near defeat into yet another victory), defeats the Belgae tribal confederation. Despite having a superior fleet of 222 vessels, using grappling hooks to tear apart his opponents sails and send boarding parties on to the enemy ships, the Veneti are bested at the Battle of Morbihan, a defeat in which the Veneti leaders are executed, and the people are all sold into slavery). Veneti eliminated, Caesar's legions then pacify Normandy and Aquitania, before turning back to the east to put down a revolt of the Suebi, whom he makes quick work of after building a bridge across the Rhine River in ten days (done with the structure, he then burns it down), the first Roman commander to do so. And in another Roman first, Caesar leads an expedition of two legions across the English Channel, exploring Britain. Groundwork for invasion laid and his name kept before an admiring Roman public (he is hailed as a hero and given an unprecedented 20-day thanksgiving), in 54 B.C., Caesar launches a full invasion of Britain, taking five legions and 2,000 cavalry across the channel, where they manage to negate the guerilla combat tactics of King Cassivellaunus and make Britons into tribute paying Roman subjects. Consolidating his gains in Gaul, back from his Britain adventure, Caesar spends two years putting down revolts, culminating in the surrender of King Vercingetorix at the Battle of Alesia (Julius personally leads his last reserves into battle and turns the tide of the fight) in 52 B.C.
Bibracte
Morbihan
Invasion
The Surrender Of Vercingetorix
Gaul successfully conquered, before Caesar can visit Britain a third time, he is forced to deal with a Roman civil war. His daughter Julia and Pompey's wife dead in childbirth (and Pompey refusing marriage to any other member of Caesar's family), Crassus killed at the Battle of Carrhae campaigning against the Parthians, greed, jealousy, and an insatiable hunger for power and wealth turn Caesar and Pompey against each other for good when moves are made by the Senate (and Pompey) to not renew Caesar's command of his Spanish legions. Tribunes supporting Caesar kicked out of Rome and the Senate declaring the general is a enemy of the Republic by "senatus consultium ultimum," Caesar takes his troops (at the time, only the Thirteenth Legion) across the Rubicon River (considered to be the city limits of Rome) as Pompey and his supporters flee the city (crossing the river Caesar is supposed to have said, "alea lacta esto" ("let the die be cast"). In the Civil War that follows, Caesar and his legions chase Pompey and his supporters all about the Mediterranean ... east to the Roman port of Brundisium (where Pompey moves his legions to Greece), lay siege to and take the western port of Massilia, lose the Battle of the Bagradas in Tunisia (a debacle in which Caesar's general, Gaius Scribonius Curio, loses two legions and his life), beat a Pompey army in Spain at the Battle of Ilerda, bring legions to Greece that butt heads at the Battle of Dyrrhachium (where the country of Albania now is), sack the city of Gomphi, using a hidden fourth line of infantry, and beat a large Pompey army at the Battle of Pharsalus (in the aftermath, Pompey will put on civilian clothing an escape to Egypt, where upon landing, in view of his wife and children, the Roman general is assassinated on orders from the Egyptian king, Ptolemy XIII). Victorious, Caesar also becomes involved in Egyptian politics and throws his weight behind Cleopatra (it is said that Caesar and the queen will have a child together) over her brother Ptolemy XIII, whom Caesar crushes at the Battle of the Nile (the Egyptian king will drown fleeing the contest when his boat capsizes). Pompey and Ptolemy out of the picture, Caesar consolidates the Roman grip on Northern Africa with a campaign westward that see his forces eventually win a decisive battle (it is during this campaigning that Caesar writes in a letter, "Veni, vidi, vici" ... I came, I saw, I conquered). against numerically superior Pompeiian armies at Thapsus (now modern day Tunisia), after which, the defeated Quintius Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Cato the Yoinger will commit suicide. Then, it is back to Spain where Caesar ends the civil war by beating the army (a formidable force of thirteen legions and auxiliaries) of Pompey's son, Gnaeus (who is rewarded for the loss by having his head cut off), at the Battle of Munda.
Pharsalus
The Death Of Pompey
Munda
Five years of battle that have cost the Romans thousands of lives and millions in treasure (during all the travel and battles, Caesar has also managed to visit Rome twice to insure its governance is still functioning the way he wants (for the most part, Mark Anthony is left behind to oversee thins), with the Senate granting him dictatorship powers four different times (during the first, Caesar resigns after only 11 days), the second time for a year, the third time for 10 years, and the fourth and last, for life. With the powers granted, along with making war, Caesar creates a new constitution with the intent of making the Roman provinces into a single cohesive unit, has the Senate grant him triumphs over Gaul, Egypt, Pharnaces, and Juba, holds massive games that include gladiator contests, beast-hunts involving over 400 lions, a naval battle, and a to-the-death battle between equal units (2,000 souls, 200 horses, and 20 elephants) of war captives, orders a new census, sees that jurors can only come from the senate or equestrian ranks, restricts the purchase of certain luxuries, rewards families for the amount of children they have, passes debt reduction laws, outlaws professional guilds, sets term limits for provincial governors, authorizes the build of several public works (including of course, the Forum of Caesar and it's Temple of Venus Genetrix), sets up a land distribution plan that gives property to his army veterans (about 15,000 soldiers), and reforms the Julian calendar. He also sees fit to order the rebuilding of Corinth and Carthage, sets up a new tax system in which individual cities collect their own taxes (with a certain percent sent to Rome), issues coins bearing his likeness, places a statue of himself next to those of past kings of Rome, gives himself a golden chair to sit in when he is overseeing the Roman Senate, wears triumphal garb anytime he wants to, and his powers allow him to veto any Senate decisions he doesn't like and appoint new senators, gets the right to speak first during any meeting of the Senate, increases the number of magistrates in the capital, which he also appoints. And lest anyone think Caesar has turned away from military affairs, he gathers funds to leave the city on March 18th for a campaign in the east to pacify the Getae and Parthians.
Games
Anthony
The Forum Of Caesar
Unhappy watching the Caesar changes take effect are the many Roman politicians that believe their powers are slipping away each day under the general's dictatorship that they have authorized. Soon they start meeting secretly to come up with a plan to remove Caesar from office, even if it means killing the man. Ire building to a boiling point, three incidents set the conspirators on the road to murder. In the first, he remains seated when a Senate delegation arrives at Caesar's Forum with a new set of honors and titles for the dictator (a display of bad etiquette that many feel means Caesar has no more respect for the lawmakers) and jokes about needing less titles, not more In the second incident, after a senate statue of the general is found wearing a diadem and a crowd shouts "Rex" at the dictator (to which he responds, "I am not Rex, but Caesar"), removes from office the two tribunes (Gaius Epidius Marullus and Lucius Caesetius Flavus) that complained the most about the crown on his statue's head and ordered the arrest of the man that yelled "King" in the street at the dictator. The third incident occurs on February 15, 44 B.C., when before a crowd of Roman citizens celebrating the festival of the Lupercalia (a pastoral annual festival meant to purify the city), Mark Anthony twice puts a crown upon Caesar's head, which the dictator rejects, stating "Jupiter alone of the Romans is King" (many however feel that his protest isn't real and he is using the festival to see if public opinion will accept him crowning himself King). Too much, the plot against Caesar takes form a few days later, on the evening of the 22nd, when Cassius Longinus, and his brother-in-law, Marcus Brutus meet and discuss what can be done to remove the dictator from office. The two conspirator's secretly soon are joined by more disgruntled politicians and Roman citizens, between sixty to eighty souls altogether. Among the future killers are Pacuvius Labeo, Decimus Brutus, Gaius Trebonius, Tillius Cimber, Minucius Basilus, Publius Casca, and Pontius Aquila (the conspirators are split on whether Caesar's friend, Marc Anthony should also be killed at the same time). After discussing killing Caesar while he is walking on the Via Sacra, attacking the dictator while he is crossing a bridge as part of the ceremony of electing two new consuls, and going at the man during the next gladiatorial games, the men decide to stab the general to death at the next meeting of the Senate (a choice that also keeps anyone other than senators out of the area and allows nearby gladiators owned by the conspirators to protect the men if something should go wrong). Aware of the ire he is generating, Caesar consults a harupex (a Roman fortune teller) named Spurinna who advises the dictator that his life will be in danger until after the Ides of March.
The Roman Senate
Two days before the planned murder, Cassius Longinus meets with the conspirators over the groups final plans, and the men make a vow that if they are unsuccessful they will turn their knives of themselves. When the Tuesday chosen finally arrives, Caesar fails to arrive after giving in to the nightmare fears his wife, Calpurnia, has dreamt of holding her husband's bloody body. Convinced at 5:00 in the morning not to go to the Senate, the dictator instead sends Mark Anthony to the meeting to dismiss the men. Not giving up on their plans, the murderers send Decimus Brutus to Caesar's home to argue that the dictator should not give in to the fears of two women, and eventually the browbeating works on the general's ego and he heads off to the Senate's current meeting hall in the Theatre of Pompey. Walking to the meeting hall, Caesar happens to see Spurinnia and playfully calls out, "Well the Ides have come," to which the fortune teller shouts back, "Aye, the Ides have come, but they are not yet gone." Ignoring the riposte, Caesar enters the meeting hall while Mark Anthony is distracted at the doorway by Decimus Brutus, and will remain outside until after the murder, when he flees back into the city. Taking his accustomed gold seat, Lucius Tillius Cimber presents the dictator with a petition to recall his exiled brother to Rome, as other conspirators crowd around the pair to supposedly give their support to the petition. Not ready to act on the request, Caesar waves the men away, but Cimber grabs the dictator's shoulders and pulls down on his toga, prompting Caesar to exclaim, "Why, this is violence!" Indeed! At the same moment, Publius Casca pulls his dagger and strikes a glancing blow to Caesar's neck, to which the dictator responds by turning around, grabbing Casca by the arm and exclaiming, "Casca, you villain, what are you doing?" Frightened that he is in the clutches of the most powerful man in the world, Casca shouts, "Help, brother!' A second later, the senators in on the plot respond like sharks smelling blood in the water, and a stabbing frenzy erupts on the floor of the Senate. Attempting to escape, Caesar forces himself out of his seat, but blinded by blood in his eyes, trips and falls, as the assassins continue to slash at their prey and the dictator bleeds out in the lower steps of the portico, at the base of a statue of his enemy, Pompey. In all, Caesar will be stabbed 23 times and is doomed by a thrust that pierces his aorta. His last words (the historians Suetonius and Plutarch will state that he says nothing as the blows are being struck) are said to be, "You too, Child?" (which Shakespeare will tweak into "Et tu, Brutus?"). Purpose accomplished, the killers flee into the streets (Caesar's body is left where it is for hours, before three slaves gather up the course and take it back to his home, and a grieving Calpurnia) expecting to be hailed as heroes as they call out, "People of Rome, we are once again free," but discover that most of the citizenry has locked themselves in their houses to await what comes next
Petition
The Stabbing Begins
Death
Fleeing
The next that arrives though is even bloody than the before it replaces. By killing Caesar the assassins bring on exactly what they were trying to prevent, the end of the Roman Republic. Showing they are not happy at the Senate, the citizens of Rome burn the hall of their government to the ground, as Mark Anthony tries to orate them to even more violence (his famous "lend me your ears" speech), and suddenly Rome has another civil war on its hands between the assassins and supporters of Anthony and Caesar's heir, his grand-nephew, 18-year-old Octavian, and when that conflict ends with the deaths of the last conspirators at the Battle of Philippi (there are lots of suicides on the losing side, including assassin Marcus Brutus), the victors turn on each other in a war that will see Anthony, and his lover and ally, Cleopatra, committing suicide and triumphant Octavian becoming the first emperor of the Roman Empire, Augustus ... an empire that will give the world epic moments of human advancement and civilization, along with centuries of war and utter madness and cruelty ... a reality that begins with Julius Caesar's death on the Ides of March, 44 B.C.
Anthony's Funeral Oration
Philippi
Augustus
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