The history of the late Roman Republic is a rather bloody period due to the numerous killings of prominent political figures, therefore, any historian, and even an ordinary person, is interested to know why and how Caesar, Cicero and other famous people of antiquity were killed. The death of the Roman dictator is also interesting because with it the struggle for power in ancient Rome entered the final stage and ended only with the collapse of the republican government.
The early years of Caesar
The future dictator was born on July 13, 100 BC. e. His youth passed in the midst of a crisis of the republic. The struggle for power flared up more and more, until it spilled over into the Allied War. The situation in the eternal city was not the best: Sulla, who came to power, published a scripture, that is, lists of those who allegedly threatened the security of the republic. Those faced the death penalty. Caesar was also on the list, as one of the generals of the enemy of Sulla - Gaius Maria. To escape death, he fled to the state of Bithynia, where he was at the court of Tsar Nycomed IV. In 68 BC e. he managed to return to his homeland.
An extraordinary leadership gift allowed Caesar to quickly climb the then career ladder. For seven years, he managed to achieve the position of propreter in Lusitania - the territory of modern Spain. This position meant the actual leadership of the province. Despite internal turmoil, Rome continued its expansion into neighboring territories, and Caesar repeatedly led his legions into battle. For numerous victories, he was awarded a triumph, and this gave him the opportunity to get the highest post of consul.
Civil wars and coming to power
Caesar strengthened his influence in the capital by entering into an alliance with Crassus and Pompey, also well-known commanders, participants in the suppression of the uprising of slaves led by Spartacus. However, disagreements soon began between them. Realizing that the republican institutions were in decline, Caesar decided to seize power by force. Civil wars that swept the Roman Republic in 49-45 BC e., ended with a decisive victory of Caesar. All of his opponents, including Pompey, were physically eliminated.
Under these conditions, the Roman Senate agreed to appoint Caesar as a life dictator. Such an abundance of power could not but alarm the old Republicans. In fact, it was the victory in the civil wars and the love of power that answer the question why Caesar was killed.
The plot and its causes
Perhaps the main reason for the conspiracy is that Caesar was ahead of his time. Despite the significant weakening of republican institutions during the period of civil wars, loyalty to the old principles has not dried up. Meanwhile, Caesar defiantly accepted the honors that had not previously been shown to any political figure, concentrated enormous power in his hands, and after visiting Egypt he tried to spread the local ideas about the supreme ruler as a god in Rome.
The conspiracy developed in the Senate. He was led by Guy Cassius and Caesar's adopted son, Mark Junius Brutus. The situation was favorable to this: one of Caesar’s edicts reduced grain distributions in the city, which caused discontent among the masses. The wealthier were annoyed by laws against luxury. Caesar abolished the transfer of direct taxes at the mercy, directing funds to the state treasury, which also did not suit the patrician elite. But these are not the only reasons that Caesar was killed. Both the fight against divorces and the flood of Rome by personally loyal police units could not but arouse concern that Caesar was striving for monarchical power.
On the eve of death
For everyone, including Caesar, it was obvious that the dictator was in mortal danger. Too abruptly he undertook to redraw the existing order. Sources say that on the eve of his death, Caesar received several notes about the existence of the conspiracy, and some tried to warn him in person. The illogical behavior of the dictator, who headed for the March ides (March 15), 44 BC. e. into the Senate building, allowed some historians to put forward a version of a peculiar suicide. However, a close examination of how Caesar was killed proves that such versions are ordinary speculation. Most likely, the dictator hoped to convince the senators that he was not going to become king.
Murder
It was the Senate that became the place where Caesar was killed. Several of its members surrounded the dictator, ostensibly wanting to introduce to him a very important issue. Petition sheets were prepared. Caesar, not suspecting danger, stopped and began to study the documents submitted to him.
Meanwhile, the senators came to the meeting armed. In ancient times, various rumors were circulating about their weapons. Some ancient authors claimed that senators hid sharpened sticks under the toga, others spoke of short swords, and others spoke of daggers. Such a discrepancy indicates that Caesar was killed with several types of weapons.
The signal for the attack was that Lucius Tullius Zimber tore off the toga from Caesar’s shoulder. The conspirators surrounded the dictator and began to strike him. Due to crowding and crowding, most of them went tangentially and did not pose a threat to life. According to the evidence of ancient historians, out of 23 attacks, only one was fatal.
Consequences of the killing
Modern historians agree that the phrase "And you, Brutus?" Caesar didn’t utter in reality - the attack was too swift. But Brutus did not bring political benefit to the killing of his adoptive father. In Rome, they knew too well who killed Julius Caesar, and the people's love for the dictator, despite the reduction in grain distribution, did not completely exhaust. Therefore, Brutus could not take any leading position, especially since Caesar's associates, in particular, Mark Anthony, unleashed another civil war.
With the support of the people, Anthony and Octavian and Cassius, who joined him, managed to defeat the Republicans. The circumstances of how Caesar was killed became for them an additional means of attracting the masses to their side. The Republican period in the history of Rome was nearing completion. The war, which dragged on for more than thirty years, ended with the victory of Octavian and the establishment of a principate regime.