By 44 BC, Julius Caesar stood alone at the top of Roman power. He was Dictator for Life, master of the Republic, and a man who had reshaped Rome with his own vision. The streets buzzed with monuments built in his honor. Festivals celebrated his victories. His face appeared on coins, a privilege once reserved for gods.
But the higher he climbed, the more isolated he became. To some, Caesar was a savior who had ended civil war and to others, he was a tyrant who crushed the Republic beneath his sandals.
Whispers in the Senate
The Senate, once Rome’s sacred heart, had become a place of uneasy silence when Caesar entered. Many senators feared he would soon declare himself king, a title Rome had hated for centuries.
Among those most troubled were men who had once called him friend:
- Marcus Junius Brutus, a man Caesar trusted like a son.
- Gaius Cassius Longinus, a sharp-tongued skeptic of Caesar’s ambitions.
- And dozens of other senators who believed they were saving the Republic by ending Caesar’s reign.
They didn’t call it murder. They called it liberation.
The Soothsayer's Warning
On the morning of March 15th, 44 BC, known in the Roman calendar as the Ides of March, a soothsayer stopped Caesar in the street. "Beware the Ides of March," he warned.
Caesar, known for his boldness, dismissed the warning with a smile. He had survived assassins, pirates, and civil wars. What could a handful of senators do?. And so, wrapped in his red robe, he made his way to the Theatre of Pompey, where the Senate was meeting that day.
Betrayal in the Forum
The Senate hall was cool and shadowed. At first, all seemed normal. Caesar took his seat. But then the conspirators surrounded him, pretending to plead for the release of a political prisoner.
Suddenly, the first dagger struck. Caesar rose, shocked and bleeding, as blow after blow rained down. History says he fought them off at first, until he saw Brutus among the attackers. "Et tu, Brute?" ; "You too, Brutus?", he said. Whether he spoke the words aloud or not, they became legend.
Caesar fell, his blood staining the floor of the very Republic he had tried to control. He died beneath a statue of Pompey, his old rival, in a cruel twist of fate.
The Aftermath
The assassins rushed into the streets, crying, "Liberty!", but Rome did not cheer. The common people mourned and the soldiers wept. Far from restoring the Republic, the murder of Caesar shattered it.
Chaos erupted. Power struggles followed. And far across the sea, Caesar’s young grand-nephew, Octavian, prepared to claim his inheritance. The lion had fallen, but his legacy roared on.
Next Time: Julius Caesar Final Saga | Legacy of the Lion
With Caesar dead, Rome descends into chaos. But his death births an empire and a ruler who will finish what Caesar started.