A Brief History of Europe: The Assassination of Caesar of the Roman Republic

Gaius Julius Caesar was calm and restrained in his handling of military affairs, and he was serious and rigorous. In communication, the language used is quite personable overall. Generous and kind, cheerful and generous, he forgave many of his political enemies and entrusted him with heavy responsibilities. But Caesar was also more dictatorial at times, eager to do great things.

Caesar pacified Spain, Sicily, Greece, and conquered the kingdoms of Egypt, Pontus, and Nubia. In 46 BC, caesar was greeted with unprecedented enthusiasm by the Romans at the triumphal ceremony, and his personal honor reached its peak, becoming Rome's lifelong dictator, army commander, high priest, life protector, and received the title of "Father of the Fatherland".

After stabilizing the external environment, Caesar carried out a series of reforms within Rome: for example, more citizenship was granted to the inhabitants of Italy and Sicily, as well as in Gaul. The policy was generally favorable to the commoners, and was widely supported by the Romans, many of whom wanted to support Caesar as king, but since the expulsion of The Proud Tuckervin, the seventh king of Rome, in 509 BC, there has been no king in Rome. There were also many Romans who opposed the restoration of the king's office. Caesar himself did not dare to venture into becoming king, so when the commoners shouted that he was king, Caesar said to everyone, "I am Caesar and not king."

Although Caesar politely refused the offer to become king, Caesar's prestige and his policies in favor of the commoners caused great resentment in the Senate. In the eyes of the senators, Caesar had always sided with the knights and commoners against the traditional grand nobles within the Senate. The purpose of the former "Big Three" alliance between Caesar and Pompey and Crassus was to balance the Senate, although Crassus was later killed in battle and Pompey was co-opted by the Senate, which led to the dissolution of the alliance, but Caesar eventually defeated Pompey.

Following Sulla's example, Caesar increased the number of the Senate from three hundred to six hundred, and included many Chiefs of the Gaulish tribes and other nobles newly incorporated into Rome, thereby weakening the traditional Roman nobility in the Senate and strengthening his control over the Senate. This, combined with the various new policies that followed, touched the interests of the traditional Roman nobility, which the Senate could not tolerate.

In 44 BC, in order to save the nine thousand Roman soldiers captured at the Battle of Calais, Caesar announced that he would expedition to Parthia. The result of the pre-expedition Roman diviners' divination was that "only a king could conquer Parthia", a result that was also endorsed by the Roman fifteen-man priesthood. This deepened the uneasiness of the traditional aristocratic, republican, senators of the Senate.

In February of the same year, on the day of The Prophet's Day, during Caesar's speech, the consul Mark Antony tried to put on the crown for him, but Caesar refused, and the crown was finally sent to The Capitol Hill to be dedicated to the Roman god Jupiter. The commoners saw Caesar's refusal to take the throne and gave him an even more enthusiastic cheer. Those who opposed Caesar were even more frightened when they saw this scene and began to plot the murder of Caesar. There were about sixty elders involved in the plot to assassinate Caesar, led by Cassius and Brutus, both of whom had been subordinates of Pompey, whom Caesar forgave and trusted after the Roman Civil War, especially Brutus, who became Caesar's adopted son. However, due to some job placement problems, they all became the masterminds who planned to assassinate Caesar.

On this day, March 15, 44 B.C., the senators invited Caesar to the Senate to read a letter of love, and Caesar's subordinate, Antony, the consul at the time, had received news from a conspiracy participant named Casca, so he immediately rushed to the Senate to try to stop Caesar. But Caesar didn't heed Anthony's warnings, it was probably that Caesar was overconfident and didn't think the senators would really prey on him. Another theory is that the senators involved in the conspiracy first found Caesar and came to the Senate together, while Antony, who came to warn him later, was blocked out of the Senate. Either way, the result was that Caesar entered the Senate alone.

As Caesar reads the love letter, Casca, who had revealed the news to Antony, stabbed Caesar from behind with a knife, but Caesar was very alert, turned and grabbed Casca's hand, and questioned him. Horrified, Casca turned to the other senators for help, and dozens of senators, including Brutus, began to stab Caesar with their swords. Caesar also drew his sword to resist and tried to leave, but eventually fell due to excessive bleeding and was eventually killed by the elders. Caesar is said to have been stabbed dozens of times in his body, but the deadliest blow to his chest came from brutus, his most trusted man. Everyone else seemed to want to inflict fatal wounds on Caesar, consciously or unconsciously.

After Succeeding, Brutus and others excitedly ran up the streets to chant sensational slogans such as "Down with dictatorship and defend the republic", but few Romans responded on the street. Because the people at this time no longer believed these nonsense, and Caesar brought real benefits to everyone, especially the Romans of commoner origin, and no one wanted to return to the era of traditional aristocratic dictatorship. The conspirators began to nervous when they saw this reaction, and Brutus even said in public, "I love Caesar, but I love Rome even more." However, the people despised Brutus even more for the benefit of killing his adoptive father. The conspirators had planned to throw Caesar's body into the Tiber, but seeing the reaction of the people and the fact that the consul Antony and the cavalry commander Rebida had arrived at the scene, the conspirators did not dare to throw Caesar's body into the Tiber.

Caesar's will was made on September 13 of the year before his assassination and was kept by the Roman priestess Vesta, whose father-in-law appointed Antony to unseal and read it out after Caesar's assassination. In his will, Caesar appointed guardians for his possible children, including several of his assassins. Caesar passed on his name to his adopted son Octavian and gave him three-quarters of his property, the remaining quarter shared by Lucius Pinarius and Cleventus Pettius, and designated Brutus as heir to the second order and executor of the first will, the latter three of whom were the masterminds of Caesar's assassination.

Almost all other conspirators were awarded to executives such as the governor, and in the face of this will, the conspirators were stunned, including Caesar and his appreciative and trusted Brutus. But that's it, and it's too late to say anything. Although the conspirators stabbed Caesar to death, it was tantamount to pronouncing their own death sentence. Those involved in the assassination could no longer receive the benefits of Caesar's will, and almost no one survived the assassination of Caesar for more than three years, because Caesar's successor did not have Caesar's mind and good temper. Although Antony, who had just taken over the Roman regime, tried to grant amnesty to the conspirators, Octavian was elected consul and immediately declared Brutus and others to be "public enemies" of Rome, and these people had to leave Rome and flee to the East.

Brutus and others raised funds in Athens, recruited troops, launched a rebellion in the spring of 42 BC, marched toward Rome, and at one point defeated octavian and Antony's fleet, but was defeated due to some misjudgments by Cicero and Brutus's haste. Another theory is from a Greek historian that Brutus dreamed of Caesar every night during the war, which led to insanity, but this Greek historian's claim is not to be believed. Because this man defected to his father-killer Pompey in the Roman Civil War, and then planned and personally killed his adoptive father Caesar, he acted in a style where interests were paramount.

Brutus eventually committed suicide, Cicero was killed, and other conspirators who lost Caesar's protection and were defeated were convicted, some of them shipwrecked, part of them of the rebellion, part of them killed by the angry populace, and the rest committed suicide with the same dagger that assassinated Caesar. Caesar, who was assassinated at the age of fifty-eight, was included in the ranks of the Roman gods according to Roman decrees and was revered as "Holy Julius"