Beware the Ides of March

2053 years ago, a group of “Liberators” assassinated Gaius Julius Caesar in an attempt to restore Rome to its Republic roots. They feared that Caesar, who had become “dictator in perpetuity”, was trying to reinstate the monarchy with himself as king. Therefore, they plotted and at a session of the senate made their move. They stabbed Caesar 23 times.

Out into the capital they proclaimed, “Liberty” and “People of Rome, we are once again free!” There was just one small problem; they didn’t have a plan for after Caesar’s death. The assumed most of the people thought as they did, that Caesar was a tyrant who needed to be done away with. Once he was dead, the Republic would simply go back to the way things had always been. It was a bad assumption.

The “Liberators” were actually a group of wealthy aristocrats. The “people” of Rome (middle and lower classes) had loved Caesar and they grew angry that this group of men had killed their hero and defender. Caesar’s funeral turned into a riot as the crowd became a mob and went after the leaders of the assassins.

Over the next 15 years, there were five civil wars. None of assassins would live past the first two years and it’s probably just as well. Their act to restore the Republic may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. The man who Caesar had adopted in his will and named his sole heir was the sole survivor of all the civil wars. Gaius Octavian, Caesar’s grandnephew, would become Imperator Caesar Augustus and he finally restored the republic (see my first blog) when he became the Rome’s first emperor.