Ancient · March 15, 44 BC · ~7 min

Would You Survive the Ides of March?

Julius Caesar. Dictator Perpetuo. Conqueror of Gaul. The Senate had voted him honors no Roman ever received, and sixty of them were sharpening daggers in the dark. Here is how March 15, 44 BC actually unfolded.

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The Ides of March: The Day the Roman Republic Died

On March 15, 44 BC, Gaius Julius Caesar — Dictator Perpetuo of Rome, conqueror of Gaul, victor of the civil war against Pompey — was assassinated by roughly sixty Roman senators at a meeting of the Senate in the Curia of Pompey. He was stabbed 23 times. He died at the foot of a statue of his old rival Pompey the Great. He was 55 years old. He had ruled Rome in fact, if not in name, for five years. His death triggered thirteen more years of civil war that ended with his adopted heir Octavian as Rome's first emperor.

It is the most famous political assassination in the Western canon. Not because it was bloody — many were bloodier — but because it was over-determined: warned by his wife, warned by a seer, warned by augurs reading entrails, warned by a note he didn't read on the steps of the Senate. The historical record contains a dozen moments where Caesar could have saved himself. He took none of them.

The Day Itself, Hour by Hour

Pre-dawn: Calpurnia, Caesar's third wife, wakes screaming from a nightmare in which she held his bleeding body. She begs him to stay home. Caesar consults his haruspices, who sacrifice a bull. The animal has no heart — a catastrophic omen. Caesar wavers.
Mid-morning: Decimus Brutus — Caesar's most trusted general, who he has named in his will as a secondary heir — arrives at the villa. Decimus laughs at the omens, accuses Caesar of being unmanly, and personally escorts him to the Senate. Decimus is one of the lead conspirators.
On the way: A Greek philosopher named Artemidorus, who has heard rumors of the plot, hands Caesar a written note naming the conspirators. Caesar puts it in his fist with other petitions and does not read it.
At the steps: Caesar passes Spurinna the seer and reportedly jokes: "The Ides of March have come." Spurinna replies: "Yes — but not gone."
Inside the Curia of Pompey: The senators rise as Caesar takes his seat. Tillius Cimber approaches with a petition for his exiled brother. Cimber grabs Caesar's toga and pulls it down — the agreed signal. Publius Servilius Casca strikes the first blow, a glancing wound to the neck. Caesar grabs Casca's arm and shouts: "Casca, you villain, what are you doing?" The other conspirators close in.
Twenty-three wounds: Each conspirator had sworn to strike at least once, to share the guilt equally. Some wounded each other in the frenzy. Caesar fought back briefly, then — recognizing Brutus among the attackers — covered his face with his toga and stopped resisting.
Aftermath: The conspirators ran out shouting that Rome was free. The senators not in the conspiracy fled. The body lay where it had fallen for hours before slaves finally carried it home on a litter. Calpurnia received it.

Why the Conspirators Failed

The killing was tactical. The aftermath was a disaster. The conspirators had a plan to kill Caesar and no plan for what came next. They believed — sincerely — that Rome would rejoice and the Republic would simply reassert itself. Within hours they understood otherwise.

No popular base. Caesar had been the favorite of the Roman urban poor and the legions. The conspirators were aristocrats. The crowd, when Antony showed them Caesar's bloody toga at the funeral, turned on the assassins immediately.
No control of Antony. The plan had included killing Mark Antony along with Caesar. Brutus vetoed it as "butchery," arguing they were tyrannicides, not murderers. Antony survived, fled, and within weeks had turned the crowd, the legions, and the political center against the conspirators.
No accounting for Octavian. The conspirators ignored Caesar's eighteen-year-old grand-nephew. Octavian arrived from Apollonia within weeks, claimed the inheritance, took the name "Caesar," and raised an army. By 42 BC he and Antony had hunted down and defeated every conspirator at Philippi.
The Republic was already dead. The institutional rot that had let Caesar accumulate power had not been fixed by killing him. The same forces that produced Caesar produced Octavian. The assassination only changed which Caesar Rome got.

How Caesar Could Have Survived

The historical record gives Caesar at least five clear off-ramps that day:

Listen to Calpurnia. If Caesar had stayed home, the conspirators would have been forced to wait — and Decimus Brutus would have had to either come fetch him a second time (raising suspicion) or call the plot off entirely. Brutus and Cassius had already been planning for months; another postponement might have been the one that broke their nerve.
Listen to Spurinna. The seer's warning was specific and dated. Caesar joked about it on the morning of his death. A more cautious dictator would have skipped the day on principle.
Read the note. Artemidorus's written warning named the conspirators on the steps of the Senate. Caesar held it in his fist for the entire walk in. Reading it would have ended the conspiracy on the spot.
Keep the bodyguard. Caesar had dismissed his Spanish guard months earlier as a public gesture of trust toward the Senate. The gesture was admirable and stupid. The dictator who had crossed the Rubicon should not have walked into the Senate unarmed.
Don't pardon Brutus and Cassius after Pharsalus. The deeper move. Caesar had defeated both men in civil war in 48 BC and chose to extend full clemency — restored their property, gave them political office. They repaid him with daggers. Sulla, his predecessor as dictator, would have proscribed them. Caesar's clemency is his most-praised and most-fatal trait.

What Came After: From Republic to Empire

The thirteen years between Caesar's death and Octavian's coronation as Augustus in 27 BC are among the most consequential in Western political history. Brutus and Cassius raised an army in the East; Antony and Octavian formed an alliance (the Second Triumvirate) to hunt them. The conspirators died at Philippi in 42 BC. Then Antony and Octavian turned on each other. Antony allied with Cleopatra of Egypt; Octavian defeated them both at Actium in 31 BC. By 27 BC Octavian was the unchallenged master of Rome. The Senate granted him the title Augustus — "the revered one" — and the Roman Empire began.

The Empire that emerged from Caesar's assassination lasted 500 years in the West and another 1,000 in the East. Every Roman emperor for the next fifteen centuries — through Constantine, through the medieval Byzantine emperors, through the last Constantine XI at the walls of Constantinople in 1453 — bore the title "Caesar." The German Kaiser and the Russian Tsar are the same word. The killing meant to save the Republic produced the most durable monarchic title in human history.

Knowledge Check

How many stab wounds did Caesar receive?+

23. According to Suetonius — who interviewed witnesses still alive in the next generation — only one wound, to the chest, was considered fatal by Caesar's physician Antistius. The other 22 were inflicted in panic by conspirators who had all sworn to strike at least once.

Who became Rome's first emperor after Caesar's death?+

Octavian, Caesar's grand-nephew and adopted heir. He took the name Augustus in 27 BC, when the Senate formally granted him supreme power. He ruled until 14 AD — a 41-year reign that established the institutional framework of the Roman Empire and produced the longest period of internal peace in Roman history (the Pax Romana).

Why didn't Caesar take the crown when it was offered at the Lupercalia?+

He read the crowd. When Mark Antony offered him the diadem in February 44 BC, Caesar saw the public reaction was hostile. He refused it three times, theatrically, to applause. Modern historians read this as a careful test — Caesar measuring whether Rome was ready for open monarchy. The test failed. The conspiracy accelerated within weeks.

Frequently Asked Questions

What were the Ides of March, exactly?+

In the Roman calendar, the 'Ides' was the 15th of March, May, July, and October — and the 13th of every other month. The Ides of March (March 15) became infamous because of the assassination of Julius Caesar on that day in 44 BC. The seer Spurinna had warned Caesar weeks earlier to 'beware the Ides of March.' On the morning of the assassination Caesar reportedly joked to him: 'The Ides have come.' Spurinna replied: 'Yes, but not gone.'

How many people actually conspired against Caesar?+

Roughly sixty senators were involved, though only about twenty actually struck blows. The lead conspirators were Marcus Junius Brutus (Caesar's friend, possibly his son by Servilia), Gaius Cassius Longinus (the prime mover and tactical brain), and Decimus Brutus (Caesar's most trusted general, who was responsible for personally getting Caesar to the Senate that day). Most of the conspirators had been pardoned by Caesar after the civil war — they killed the man who had spared them.

Were Caesar's last words really 'Et tu, Brute?'+

Probably not. The phrase comes from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1599), based on a Latin tradition. Ancient sources are split. Suetonius reports that some witnesses heard Caesar say (in Greek, his cultivated language): 'Kai su, teknon?' — 'You too, child?' — possibly addressed to Marcus Brutus. The 'child' is ambiguous: it could be an affectionate term for a younger ally, or it could be literal, since Brutus was rumored to be Caesar's biological son. Suetonius also reports that other witnesses said Caesar said nothing and only pulled his toga over his head to die with dignity.

Could Caesar actually have survived?+

Yes, easily. The most well-attested historical fact is that he was warned repeatedly — by Calpurnia's dream, by Spurinna the seer, by the haruspices who read the entrails that morning, by Artemidorus who handed him a note naming the conspirators on the steps of the Senate (Caesar didn't read it). He went unarmed. He had dismissed his bodyguard months earlier as a goodwill gesture to the Senate. Any one of a dozen tactical changes — staying home that day, reading the note, keeping the guard — would have prevented the assassination. The Ides of March is studied partly because it is the most over-determined assassination in history. Everyone saw it coming except the victim.

What happened after the assassination?+

The conspirators ran into the Forum waving bloody daggers and shouting that Rome was free. Rome did not agree. Mark Antony orchestrated a funeral that turned the crowd against the assassins so violently that Brutus and Cassius had to flee Rome within weeks. Caesar's eighteen-year-old nephew Octavian — named heir in the will — arrived from Apollonia, took the name 'Caesar,' raised an army, and over thirteen years of civil war ended with Octavian as sole ruler of Rome. He became Augustus in 27 BC. The Republic was finished. The Roman Empire — which carried the title 'Caesar' until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 — began with the men who killed Julius.

Why is this assassination so famous?+

Three reasons. First, the dramatic facts: warned by a seer, betrayed by his closest friend, stabbed at the foot of a statue of his old rival, 23 wounds, the most famous quote in Western political theatre. Second, the historical pivot: this is the moment the Roman Republic — which had lasted 460 years and served as the model for every later Western republic — became a monarchy in everything but name. Third, the literary afterlife: Plutarch, Suetonius, Cassius Dio, Shakespeare, every major modern historian, and a thousand novels have retold the story. The Ides of March is the West's foundational political assassination.

Sources

·Plutarch, Life of Caesar (c. 100 AD)
·Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars (c. 121 AD)
·Cassius Dio, Roman History, Books 43-44 (c. 230 AD)
·Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus (2006)
·Tom Holland, Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic (2003)
·Barry Strauss, The Death of Caesar (2015)