Julius Caesar assassination was one of the most famous acts of conspiracy against a popular politician and General, who was beloved by the masses. Orchestrated by the Senate and the Optimates (patrician oligarchy), the assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar was carried out on March 15, 44 BC, when he was on his way to the Senate floor for a meeting. He was stabbed to death, receiving 23 lethal knife wounds, two of them were directed to his chest. Despite his military experience, there was nothing he could do to defend himself as he was unarmed and had no body guards. Around 60 senators, led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Cassius Longinus, took part in this assassination. The deadly stabbing was so massively and frantically done that the perpetrators accidentally wounded themselves as they tried to stick their daggers in Caesar's body.
Reason for the assassination of Julius Caesar
The reason for the Roman Senate to conspire to assassinate Julius Caesar was that the senators and the patrician oligarchy would lose power and influence on the Roman government and society if the Roman General was not stopped in his political projects. Effectively, the Roman General had become famous and politically powerful after his military victories against the Gauls in France in the Gallic Wars and against Pompey and his sons in the Civil War (49 to 45 BC) that ensued the collapse of the First Triumvirate government. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar had been declared dictator of Rome for ten years, and censor for life. However, he retained the republican form of rule. He had also become very popular among the plebeians (plebs) due to a series of popular measures he had taken to improve the life of the lower classes; he had ordered a census be carried out to expand and allocate fairly the grain dole (food support) among the Roman's poor. He also provided the urban unemployed with jobs by undertaken projects of public building construction. Thus, Julius Caesar was supported by the Populares, who were the representatives in the lower house (comitia centuriata = popular assemblies).
Assassination
On March 15, 44 BC, Julius Caesar was scheduled to appear at a session of the Senate. That day, the oligarchy's plot to assassinate him had already been planned and arranged several days in advance. On the night before, Calpurnia, Caesar's wife, had a nightmare in which she dreamed her husband covered in a blood-stained toga. When she woke up, she warned Julius Caesar, telling him that the gods had made her see things and she said: 'beware of the Ides of March', which was March 15 on the Roman calendar. As soon as Caesar entered the Senate building, he got surrounded by the conspirators. In the conspiring group, there was his friend Marcus Junius Brutus, a young politician, whom Caesar esteemed. At a signal, the conspirators drew their daggers and attacked him, stabbing him to death.
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| Above, a 17th century painting depicting the assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March. |