The Ides of March are come

“Beware the Ides of March”

- William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2

 The "Tusculum portrait" of Julius Caesar
made during his lifetime.

On March 15, 44 BC, Emperor Julius Caesar (July 100 BC - March 15, 44 BC) was assassinated (murdered?) in the Roman Senate, stabbed 23 times by conspirators led in part by his friend, Marcus Junius Brutus.  Recall that it was Caesar who conquered Gaul, invaded Britain, with his Roman Legions crossed the Rhine, became a Roman Governor, fought numerous wars (defeated  Pontus in Zela, Turkey and famously wrote to his friend Amantius how he “Came, saw, conquered”), was believed to have amassed too much military and political power, charged with treason; and with a Roman Legion “Crossed the Rubicon” (the river separating Italy from Gaul to the north) uttering the famous line “The die is cast” (or perhaps “Let the die be cast”) thereby igniting the Roman civil war that ended with the defeat and death of Pompey; and who famously sided with Cleopatra during an Egyptian civil war, and was utimately declared “Dictator in Perpetuity” and “Father of the Fatherland;” enacted a number of social and political reforms including ordering a census, sought to reduce public debt, extended the right of Roman citizenship throughout the empire, instituted political term limits, and adopted the Julian calendar (adopted from the Egyptian calendar which aligned the calendar with the sun and seasons as opposed to the moon, added three months to the calendar year, included a leap year every fourth year, and provided for 365.25 days per year beginning on January 1, 45 BC); and who wrote of his exploits in his Commentaries on the Gallic War and Commentaries on the Civil War.

Caesar's Commentaries on the
Gallic Wars

The Greek historian Plutarch wrote how Roman politicians had come to fear and distrust Caesar believing (not without merit) that Caesar was ambitious and sought to make himself King of the Roman Empire for Life, thereby destroying the Republic.  A conspiracy to overthrow Caesar was born that consisted of sixty Roman senators led by Gaius Cassius Longinus and supported by Caesar’s one-time ally, Marcus Junius Brutus.  Plutarch wrote how one day, while walking through a market, a seer had warned Caesar to be on guard come the Ides (day of the full moon).  Shakespeare famously wrote of this encounter in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar when a soothsayer warned Caesar to “Beware the Ides of March” (Act 1, S 2).

Caesar's Commentaries on the
Civil Wars

Plutarch wrote how suspicions of conspiracy swirled and on March 15, Caesar’s wife told him that she had dreamt of seeing his body streaming with blood.  She begged Caesar not to go to attend the senate that day.  Caesar’s departure was delay and as walked to the Theater of Pompeii (where the senate met), he passed the seer, “when the day had come and Caesar was on his way to the senate-house, he greeted the seer with a jest and said:

“Well, the Ides of March are come,”

Soothsayer: "Ay, Caesar; but not gone."

Plutarch wrote how Caesar entered the senate chamber, sat in his chair as the senator Tullius Climber delivered a petition to recall an exiled brother.  The conspirators, in excess of 60 surrounded Caesar as though in support of Climber’s petition and as Caesar waved the group away, Tullius pulled Caesar’s toga down from his neck.  Plutarch wrote how:

“This was the signal for the assault.  It was Casca who gave him the first blow with his dagger, in the neck, not a mortal wound, nor even a deep one, for which he was too much confused, as was natural at the beginning of a deed of great daring; so that Caesar turned about, grasped the knife, and held it fast.  At almost the same instant both cried out, the smitten man in Latin: ‘Accursed Casca, what does thou?’ and the smiter, in Greek, to his brother: ‘Brother, help!’

The Death of Caesar (Mort de César), Vincenzo Camuccini, 1798

So the affair began, and those who were not privy to the plot were filled with consternation and horror at what was going on; they dared not fly, nor go to Caesar's help, nay, nor even utter a word.

But those who had prepared themselves for the murder bared each of them his dagger, and Caesar, hemmed in on all sides, whichever way he turned confronting blows of weapons aimed at his face and eyes, driven hither and thither like a wild beast, was entangled in the hands of all; for all had to take part in the sacrifice and taste of the slaughter. Therefore Brutus also gave him one blow in the groin.

 Death of Caesar, Jean-Leon Gerome, 1867

And it is said by some writers that although Caesar defended himself against the rest and darted this way and that and cried aloud, when he saw that Brutus had drawn his dagger, he pulled his toga down over his head and sank, either by chance or because pushed there by his murderers, against the pedestal on which the statue of Pompey stood.”

Shakespeare's The Tragedy
of Julius Caesar (from the First Folio)

We recall how in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Shakespeare wrote how seeing his friend Brutus attack him, Caesar cried “Et tu, Brute?” – “And you, Brutus?” (See: Julius Caesar: Act 1, Scene 2)

Plutarch concluded:

“And the pedestal was drenched with his blood, so that one might have thought that Pompey himself was presiding over this vengeance upon his enemy, who now lay prostrate at his feet, quivering from a multitude of wounds.  For it is said that he received twenty-three; and many of the conspirators were wounded by one another, as they struggled to plant all those blows in one body.

Caesar thus done to death, the senators, although Brutus came forward as if to say something about what had been done, would not wait to hear him, but burst out of doors and fled, thus filling the people with confusion and helpless fear…”

Plutarch, The Life of Julius Caesar, pp. 64-67 (See: Plutarch, The Parallel Lives. The Life of Julius ).