Beware the Ides of March
“Et tu, Brute?”
Today, the Ides of March, marks the
anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. Caesar was
famously assassinated at a meeting of the Roman Senate after having (almost
certainly apocryphally) been warned to “Beware the Ides of March.” According to
Seutonius, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, “When a note revealing the
plot was handed him by some one on the way, he put it with others which he held
in his left hand, intending to read them presently.” Marc Antony (not “Anthony”), to whom the plot
had been divulged, tried to intercept Caesar, but he was himself intercepted.
As for the Beware the Ides of March warning, Seutonius wrote: “Again, when he
[Caesar] was offering sacrifice, the soothsayer Spurinna warned him to beware
of danger, which would come not later than the ides of March. …. [H]e entered the House [the Theater of
Pompey] in defiance of portents, laughing at Spurinna and calling him a false
prophet, because the ides of March were come without bringing him harm.
Spurinna replied that they had of a truth come, but they had not gone.”
Although stabbed twenty-three times by
the various conspirators, only one wound was fatal (hence the occasional description
of the assassination as the ultimate group project). At the time of his death
he was 56, and by some measures was among the richest men to have ever lived.
Caesar rose to power out of the First
Civil War that resulted from the dissolution of the First Triumvirate, it
comprised of Caesar, Pompey (a/k/a Pompey Magnus) and Crassus. Crassus was
killed in 53 b.c. when as Governor of Syria he invaded Parthia (the invasion
was for Rome a disaster). The
relationship between Caesar and Pompey fell apart over personal differences,
and Pompey was killed in 48 b.c. when he fled in Egypt
Caesar’s murder by members of the
Senate (some 60 senators were part of the plot, but not Cicero – the
conspirators were unsure he had the stomach for such an act) was premised upon
the notion that they were somehow preserving liberty for Rome; after the deed
they paraded through the streets shouting “liberty.” This against the fear that Caesar sought to
be king, an especially galling notion in light of Rome having been, at least as
part of its foundation myth, ruled by kings and then thrown them off. Still, at this stage Caesar had been
appointed Dictator for Life (Dictator Perpetuo) by the Senate. It seems this subset of the Senate sought to
undo what the whole Senate had approved.
As set forth in Adrian Goldsworthy’s
biography of Caesar titled (surprisingly) Caesar:
The conspirators spoke of liberty, and believed that this
could only be restored by removing Caesar. Most, perhaps all, thought they were
acting for the good of the entire Republic. With Caesar dead the normal
institutions of the State ought to function properly again and Rome could be
guided by the Senate and freely elected magistrates. To show that this was
their sole aim they decided they would kill the dictator but no one else,
including his fellow consul and close associate Antony. Brutus is said to have
persuaded them to accept this, against the advice of some of the more pragmatic
conspirators.
The huddled masses of Rome were less
worried about Republican principles than they were with the loss of Caesar’s
largess and the interruption of public work programs that provided desperately
needed employment. As recounted by Nicolaus of Damascus in his Life of
Augustus, “Even their [The assassin’s] houses were besieged by the people,
not under any leader, but the populace itself was enraged on account of the
murder of Caesar, of whom they were fond, and especially when they had seen his
bloody garment and newly slain body brought to burial when they had forced
their way into the Forum and had there interred it.”
“Liberty” was not to be had. Caesar’s
death unleashed upon the tottering Roman Republic the Second Civil War of
Caesar’s heir Octavian (18 years old at the time of Caesar’s death and later to
be Caesar Augustus) and Marc Antony (Lepidus, the third member of the Second
Triumvirate, was a place holder) against the assassins and their various
supporters. Octavian and Antony were not friends. Rather, applying the adage
“the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” they were joined in opposition to
Caesar’s assassins and little else. Regardless, the decision of the night
before the assignation to not as well target Marc Antony, in retrospect, was no
doubt regretted.
Assassins Brutus and Cassius (Gaius
Cassius Longinus) would each commit suicide after losing a phase of the Battle
of Philippi (notwithstanding the presentation in the HBO series “Rome,” they
died on different days). Cicero (who as
noted above was not himself part of the conspiracy) would be executed as part
of the proscriptions after the victory of the Second Triumvirate.
Still later Octavian and Antony would
turn on one another, Antony’s forces being routed at Actium. Octavian would go on to be the first Roman
emperor, Caesar Augustus.
But back to Caesar’s dying words. “Et tu
Brute” is not recorded by any classical historian – it is a quote from
Shakespeare. Plutarch, who was born exactly 100 years after the assassination,
reports that Caesar said nothing after the attack began in earnest. Suetonius
wrote that others reported his last words to be “καὶ σύ, τέκνον” (Greek still
being the lingua franca of the Romans), transliterated as “Kai su, teknon” or
“You also child,” addressed to Brutus (that is Marcus Junius Brutus the
Younger, not to be confused with Decimus Junius Brutus, another party to the assignation).
There were rumors, later reported by Plutarch (Suetonius is silent on the
topic) that Caesar was in fact Brutus’ father – it was known that Brutus’
mother Servilia was Caesar’s mistress.
Still that would appear to be something of a stretch; Caesar was 16 at
the time of Brutus' conception; Servilla was at that time 28.
For anyone who watched the “Spartacus”
series, while the sources do not exclude Caesar's participation in the war
against Spartacus (i.e., the “Third Servile War”), they provide no
details of that participation. Ergo, the
portrayal of Caesar's actions are pure fiction.
