Assassination of Julius Caesar (the Ides of March)
- Date
- 15 March 44 BCE
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Italy (Rome)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
Having defeated Pompey at Pharsalus in 48 BCE and won the civil war, Julius Caesar accumulated unprecedented power, and in early 44 BCE he was made dictator perpetuo, dictator in perpetuity.
To a Senate steeped in the Republic's deep hostility to kingship, this lifelong supremacy seemed to extinguish republican liberty. On 15 March 44 BCE, the Ides of March, a conspiracy of some sixty senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus stabbed Caesar to death at a Senate meeting held in the Curia of Pompey, striking him roughly two dozen times. The conspirators believed they were restoring the Republic, but they had no plan to fill the vacuum. Instead the killing unleashed a new round of civil wars between Caesar's heir Octavian and lieutenant Mark Antony and the assassins, and later between Octavian and Antony themselves. The Republic's institutions never recovered; in 27 BCE Octavian, as Augustus, established the principate, the imperial monarchy that the conspirators had died to prevent. Caesar's murder thus stands as a pivotal turning point between Republic and Empire.
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Empires active in 15 March 44 BCE
- Han Dynasty202 BCE – 220 CE
- Roman Republic509 BCE – 27 BCE
- Xiongnu Confederation209 BCE – 93 CE
- Kan Kingdom (El Mirador)300 BCE – 150 CE
- Parthian Empire247 BCE – 224 CE
- Indo-Greek Kingdom180 BCE – 10 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Augustus founds the Principate (First Settlement)16 January 27 BCE
- Tribunate and murder of Tiberius Gracchus133 BCE
- Codification of the Law of the Twelve Tables451–449 BCE
- Teotihuacan rises as a great city and builds the Pyramid of the Sunc. 100 CE
- Wang Mang nationalises land under the Xin dynastyAD 9
- Qin unification of China and the First Emperor221 BCE
Further reading
If you read one book
The Death of Caesar: The Story of History's Most Famous Assassination
Fast-paced retelling of the Ides of March and its aftermath.
Get it on Amazon →Also worth reading
- The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome — Amazon →
The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome
Provocative, readable take framing the Ides of March as the climax of Roman class conflict.
Get it on Amazon → - Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic — Amazon →
Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
Gripping narrative of the Republic's collapse that culminates in Caesar's fate.
Get it on Amazon →
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