Why Caesar Was Assassinated, and How the Roman Republic Died

Why Caesar Was Assassinated, and How the Roman Republic Died

On March 15, 44 BC, in the Roman Senate, a group of senators led by Brutus and Cassius, 23 in all, drew daggers hidden under their togas and stabbed to death the Roman "Dictator for Life" Gaius Julius Caesar at the foot of Pompey's statue. Caesar was stabbed 23 times, with only one wound fatal, but he was the central figure in Rome's transition from republic to empire. On the surface, the assassination ended Caesar; in truth, it ended Rome's 500-year republic and opened a 2,000-year tradition of imperial rule in the West. Why did the assassination happen? What had Caesar done to make the senators, his friends and political allies, decide he had to die?

The Roman Republic Before Caesar

To understand Caesar's death, you first have to understand what the Roman Republic was.

In 509 BC, Rome abolished its monarchy and established a republic, one of the earliest "democratic" governments in Western history. The Republic had three core institutions: the Senate (aristocratic assembly), the consuls (two elected each year for one-year terms) and the popular assembly (the citizen body). The three checked one another so that no individual could monopolize power.

This system carried Rome over 500 years from a small Italian city-state to ruler of the Mediterranean. By the 1st century BC, however, the empire had grown too big for annually rotating consuls to manage, while a professional army that swore loyalty to its generals rather than the state allowed warlords like Marius, Sulla, Pompey and Caesar, each more powerful than the last, to rise.

How Caesar Got There

Caesar's family was modest in wealth, but he came from the ancient Julian gens, said to descend from the Trojan prince Aeneas, giving him political pedigree. At around 30, financed by loans from the rich Crassus, Caesar began climbing Rome's cursus honorum, working his way up to governor of Spain.

In 60 BC, Caesar, Pompey and Crassus formed an alliance known as the First Triumvirate. The three carved up Roman power: Caesar took Gaul (modern France), Pompey took Spain and Crassus took the East. From 58 to 51 BC, Caesar fought eight years in Gaul, conquering the whole region and invading Britain and Germania, bringing endless wealth and territory to Rome. Over those eight years he built up a 200,000-strong elite army, the foundation of everything that followed.

In 53 BC, Crassus was killed attacking Parthia (modern Iran), and the Triumvirate collapsed into a two-way contest between Caesar and Pompey. The Senate sided with Pompey and ordered Caesar to surrender command and return to Rome to stand trial. Caesar refused and, in January 49 BC, led his troops across the Rubicon (the boundary of Roman Italy), launching civil war. "The die is cast," or "crossing the Rubicon," became shorthand for the point of no return.

Caesar's March Toward Dictatorship

Over the next five years Caesar defeated Pompey at the Battle of Pharsalus (48 BC) and crushed Pompey's remnants in Africa and Spain. By 45 BC, he was effectively Rome's sole ruler.

Back in Rome, his actions alarmed senators more and more:

First, he was made "dictator." The post traditionally lasted only six months, but Caesar was given a ten-year term and then a lifetime one, meaning he could dictate indefinitely. Second, he stripped much of the Senate's power and concentrated decision-making in his own hands. Third, in public he wore a purple toga symbolic of kingship and received senators from a golden throne, a posture that suggested he intended to become king. Fourth, he issued large numbers of coins bearing his own portrait, unprecedented in Roman history and the practice only of monarchs. Fifth, he undertook sweeping reforms in Rome: a new calendar (the Julian, later the European standard), land grants for veterans and welfare for citizens. Many of these reforms helped ordinary people but were pushed through over the Senate's objections.

By early 44 BC, the consul Mark Antony three times publicly offered Caesar a diadem-style ribbon symbolizing kingship; Caesar refused three times, but senators knew it was a test, and that he would sooner or later be king.

Who Planned the Assassination

The plot was organized by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, both senators and longtime friends of Caesar.

Brutus is particularly intriguing. He was an old friend, and rumored to be Caesar's illegitimate son: Caesar had been the lover of Brutus's mother Servilia, an open secret in Rome. Caesar doted on Brutus, immediately forgiving him after the civil war (Brutus had sided with Pompey) and promoting him to governor.

But Brutus was a committed republican. His ancestor Lucius Junius Brutus had overthrown Rome's last king, Tarquin, in 509 BC. Brutus believed Caesar was becoming a new king and that he, like his ancestor, had to kill the tyrant to save the Republic.

Cassius was more pragmatic, opposing Caesar mainly on political grounds: Caesar had usurped the Senate's powers and had to be removed. The two recruited 22 more senators and planned the murder.

What Happened That Day

March 15, 44 BC, the Ides of March on the Roman calendar. Caesar had bad premonitions that morning. His wife Calpurnia had dreamed he would be stabbed and begged him not to attend the Senate. A soothsayer had warned: "Beware the Ides of March." Caesar nearly stayed home, but Brutus came personally to coax him, saying the Senate had important business and his absence would be read as fear. Caesar relented and went.

Upon his arrival, the senator Tillius Cimber approached, grabbed Caesar's toga, and pretended to plead with him, the agreed signal. Casca struck first, stabbing Caesar in the neck from behind, only a glancing blow. Caesar cried out, and the other senators drew their daggers and in the chaos delivered 23 stabs. At first Caesar resisted, but when he saw Brutus advancing with a dagger, he sighed deeply, pulled his toga over his face, and collapsed at the base of Pompey's statue, blood pouring from him.

Shakespeare's play has Caesar's last words as "Et tu, Brute?" ("You too, Brutus?"). According to the earlier Roman historian Suetonius, Caesar said in Greek "Kai sy, teknon?" ("You too, my child?"), confirming that Caesar may have indeed thought of Brutus as a son.

The Death of the Republic

The senators who killed Caesar believed they had saved the Republic, but they were horribly wrong. They had not killed an enemy of the Republic but its last hope. Caesar was a dictator, but he was also a far-sighted statesman: he wanted reform, not mere dictatorship. After his murder, Rome descended into 13 years of civil war, more chaotic than his rule had been.

Caesar's adopted son Octavian (later Augustus) inherited his political capital and, with Caesar's lieutenant Antony, fought the Brutus faction. In 42 BC, at the Battle of Philippi, Brutus and Cassius were defeated and committed suicide. Octavian and Antony then turned on each other; in 31 BC, at the Battle of Actium, Octavian defeated Antony to become Rome's sole ruler. In 27 BC, the Senate granted Octavian the title "Augustus" ("the revered"), and the Roman Empire was officially established. The Republic was dead.

The Historical Significance of the Assassination

Caesar's death is one of the most dramatic events in Western history and a turning point in Western politics. From that day, Rome's 500-year republican tradition formally ended, and Europe entered 2,000 years of "imperial rule," lasting into the early 20th century.

The assassination left several lasting lessons. First, the course of history rarely yields to a single murder. Brutus thought killing Caesar would save the Republic, but he only sped its demise. The direction of social development is structural and cannot be changed by killing one man. Second, the clash between idealism and realism. Brutus was a noble idealist who genuinely believed he was doing right, but he underestimated the complexity of the situation. The logic of "extreme actions for noble ends" has played out repeatedly in history, almost always tragically. Third, every strongman politics ends in chaotic succession. Although Caesar named Octavian his heir, his death still triggered 13 years of civil war. The lesson is that concentrating all power in one man is dangerous: when he falls, the country falls with him.

Shakespeare turned Caesar's story into the classic tragedy Julius Caesar, still performed worldwide. Its most famous lines, Mark Antony's funeral oration, "I come not to praise Caesar, but to bury him," remain a classic of Western rhetoric and an inseparable part of the historical event itself.

2,070 years on, Caesar's shadow lingers. His name became the title for "emperor," producing the German Kaiser and the Russian Tsar. That is the most enduring legacy Caesar left the world.