The Ides of March (44 BC): How the Roman Republic Actually

On the Ides of March, March 15, 44 BC, Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by more than sixty senators in the Curia of Pompey, and two days later the Roman Senate voted to keep every one of his acts in force. This episode follows how the Roman Republic reached that point and why killing the dictator could not bring it back. It starts with Caesar's return from Munda in 45 BC and his triumph over fellow Romans, then the honors voted by a Senate he had enlarged to about 900 and filled with his own men. By February of 44 he was dictator for life, an office the old Republic had capped at six months, and his face was on Rome's silver. I follow the "Rex" episode on the Alban Mount, the two tribunes he removed from office, and the Lupercalia, where Mark Antony offered him a diadem and he pushed it away while the crowd cheered. The conspiracy was led by men who owed Caesar their lives or their careers, since Gaius Cassius Longinus, Marcus Junius Brutus, Decimus Brutus, and Gaius Trebonius had nearly all been pardoned by him or given their offices by him. I go through the warnings as Suetonius and Plutarch tell them, the morning of March 15, Tillius Cimber's petition, Casca's first blow, and the twenty-three wounds at the foot of Pompey's statue. The turn comes on March 17, when the Senate met in the Temple of Tellus, granted the killers an amnesty on Cicero's proposal, and confirmed Caesar's acts in the same session, because too many offices, provinces, and veterans' land grants depended on them. After that come the reading of Caesar's will, the funeral and the fire in the Forum, the conspirators leaving Rome, and Gaius Octavius claiming his great-uncle's name. Our narrative sources wrote long after the fact, and on the big questions, like whether Caesar wanted to be king or why the Senate voted the way it did, I show you where they disagree so you can read them yourself. THE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC ARC: Tiberius Gracchus • Gaius Marius • The Social War • Sulla • Spartacus • Marcus Crassus • Pompey the Great • Julius Caesar • The First Triumvirate at Luca • The Murder of Clodius • Crossing the Rubicon • The Ides of March (you are here) • Cicero • The Pattern: How Republics Really Die Next: Cicero: The Voice That Couldn't Save Rome. The Money, Borders, Power framework primer is episode 115. CHAPTERS 00:00 The men who killed Caesar, and the vote three days later 01:32 Welcome back 03:00 Caesar comes home from Munda, 45 BC 06:20 From six months to dictator for life 08:00 Rex, the diadem, and the Lupercalia 12:16 The conspiracy of men Caesar pardoned 16:56 March 15, 44 BC: the killing in the Curia of Pompey 20:38 March 17: the Senate keeps Caesar's acts 22:42 The will, the funeral, and the fire 25:27 Who inherits a republic SOURCES Suetonius, The Deified Julius 76 to 89; Plutarch, Lives of Caesar, Brutus, and Antony; Appian, Civil Wars, Book 2; Cassius Dio, Roman History, Books 43 and 44; Nicolaus of Damascus, Life of Augustus; Cicero, Letters to Atticus, Book 14, and Philippics 1 and 2. Modern: Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution (1939); Barry Strauss, The Death of Caesar (2015); Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus (2006).