Editing Julius Caesar (section)

=== Conspiracy and death ===
{{see also|Assassination of Julius Caesar}}
[[File:Iulius Caesar denarius 44 BC 851830.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1|
This also shows Caesar's laurelled head with the inscription {{lang|la|CAESAR DICT PERPETVO}}. The reverse, however, shows the name of the moneyer – one Publius Sepullius Macer – along with the goddess Venus, with which Caesar identified, holding Victory in her right hand and a sceptre in the left.{{sfn|Crawford|1974|loc=480/10 (= pp. 487–90, 494)}}
]]
[[File:Gaius Cassius Longinus and Lentulus Spinther. 42 BC. AR Denarius.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1|[[Denarius]] (42&nbsp;BC) of Cassius and [[Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther|Lentulus Spinther]], depicting the crowned head of [[Libertas|Liberty]] and on the reverse a sacrificial jug and ''[[lituus]]''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crawford |first=Michael Hewson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w0pmAAAAMAAJ |title=Roman republican coinage |date=1974 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-07492-6 |page=514}}</ref> ]]
[[File:Jean-Léon Gérôme - The Death of Caesar - Walters 37884.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1|An 1867 depiction of Caesar's death. ''[[The Death of Caesar (Gérôme)|The Death of Caesar]]'' by [[Jean-Léon Gérôme]].]]

Attempts in January 44&nbsp;BC to call Caesar {{lang|la|rex}} ({{lit|king}}) – a title associated with arbitrary oppression against citizens – were shut down by two tribunes before a supportive crowd. Caesar, claiming that the two tribunes infringed on his honour by doing so, had them deposed from office and ejected from the Senate.{{sfn|Meier|1995|p=476}} The incident both undermined Caesar's original arguments for pursuing the civil war (protecting the tribunes) and angered a public which still revered the tribunes as protectors of popular freedom.{{sfnm|Morstein-Marx|2021|1p=522 (noting attempts to restore the tribunes to office after Caesar's death)|Tempest|2017|2p=81}} Shortly before 15 February 44&nbsp;BC, he assumed the dictatorship for life, putting an end to any hopes that his powers would be merely temporary.{{sfn|Meier|1995|pp=474, 476}} Transforming his dictatorship, even with a decadal appointment, into one for life clearly showed to all contemporaries that Caesar had no intention to restore a free republic and that no free republic could be restored so long as he was in power.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Badian |first=Ernst |date=1990 |title=Review of "Caesar" |jstor=27690364 |journal=Gnomon |volume=62 |issue=1 |pages=35 |issn=0017-1417 |quote=At this point, some time in early February 44, no one could persuade himself that the ''res publica'' would ever be restored as long as Caesar lived. }}</ref>

Just days after his assumption of the life dictatorship, he publicly rejected a [[diadem]] from Antony at celebrations for the [[Lupercalia]]. Interpretations of the episode vary: he may have been rejecting the diadem publicly only because the crowd was insufficiently supportive; he could have done it performatively to signal he was no monarch; alternatively, Antony could have acted on his own initiative. By this point, however, rumour was rife that Caesar – already wearing the dress of a monarch – sought a formal crown and the episode did little to reassure.{{sfn|Meier|1995|pp=476–77}}

The plan to assassinate Caesar had started by the summer of 45&nbsp;BC. An attempt to recruit Antony was made around that time, though he declined and gave Caesar no warning. By February 44&nbsp;BC, there were some sixty conspirators.{{sfn|Meier|1995|p=479}} It is clear that by this time, the victorious Caesarian coalition from the civil war had broken apart.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=561–62}} While most of the conspirators were former Pompeians, they were joined by a substantial number of Caesarians.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=556}} Among their leaders were [[Gaius Trebonius]] (consul in 45), Decimus Brutus (consul designate for 42), as well as [[Gaius Cassius Longinus|Cassius]] and [[Marcus Junius Brutus|Brutus]] (both praetors in 44&nbsp;BC).{{sfn|Meier|1995|p=480}} Trebonius and Decimus had joined Caesar during the war while Brutus and Cassius had joined Pompey; other Caesarians involved included [[Servius Sulpicius Galba (praetor 54 BC)|Servius Sulpicius Galba]], [[Lucius Minucius Basilus]], [[Lucius Tillius Cimber|Lucius Tullius Cimber]], and [[Publius Servilius Casca|Gaius Servilius Casca]].{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=556, noting Basilus and Cimber as praetors in 45 and Casca as plebeian tribune in 44 or 43}} Many of the conspirators would have been candidates in the consular elections for 43 to 41&nbsp;BC,{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=560}} likely dismayed by Caesar's sham elections in early 44&nbsp;BC that produced advance results for the years 43–41&nbsp;BC. Those electoral results came from the grace of the dictator and not that of the people; for the republican elite this was no substitute for actual popular support.{{sfnm|Tempest|2017|1p=93|Meier|1995|2p=465 ("their dignity would have been spurious")|Morstein-Marx|2021|3pp=547–48, 549–50 ("{{lang|la|honores}} obtained as a personal favour rather than by a judgment of the People were in fact no 'honour' at all")}} Nor is it likely that the subordination of the normal magistrates to Caesar's masters of horse ({{langx|la|magistri equitum}}) was appreciated.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=553}}

Brutus, who claimed descent from the [[Lucius Junius Brutus]] who had [[Overthrow of the Roman monarchy|driven out the kings]] and the [[Gaius Servilius Ahala]] who had freed Rome from incipient tyranny, was the main leader of the conspiracy.{{sfnm|Tempest|2017|1p=41|Meier|1995|2pp=480–81}} By late autumn 45&nbsp;BC, graffiti<ref>{{harvnb|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=524–25}} gives a number of examples:
* {{harvnb|Plut. ''Brut.''|loc=9.6}}: "If only you lived now, Brutus", on the Capitoline statue of Lucius Brutus.
* {{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=80.3}}: "If only you [Lucius Brutus] were alive".
* {{harvnb|App. ''BCiv.''|loc=2.112}}: "[Lucius Brutus,] your descendants are unworthy of you", challenging Marcus Brutus to act.
* {{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=80.3}}: "Brutus became the first consul, since he had expelled the kings; This man [Caesar] at last became king, since he had expelled the consuls", on a statue of Caesar.
* {{harvnb|Plut. ''Brut.''|loc=9.7}}; {{harvnb|Plut. ''Caes.''|loc=62.7}}; {{harvnb|App. ''BCiv.''|loc=2.112}}; {{harvnb|Dio|loc=44.12.3}}: graffiti at Marcus Brutus' praetorian seat in the forum challenging him as asleep, corrupt, or not a true descendant of the Lucius Brutus who founded the republic.</ref> and some public comments at Rome were condemning Caesar as a tyrant and insinuating the need for a Brutus to remove the dictator. The ancient sources, excepting [[Nicolaus of Damascus]], are unanimous that this reflected a genuine turn in public opinion against Caesar.{{sfnm|Morstein-Marx|2021|1pp=523, 526–27, 528 (calling the belief in modern scholarship that Caesar remained "the darling of the People" unsupported by the evidence and "infantilising")|Tempest|2017|2pp=86–87}} Popular indignation at Caesar was likely rooted in his debt policies (too friendly to lenders), use of lethal force to suppress protests for debt relief, his reduction in the grain dole, his abolition of the {{lang|la|collegia}} restored by Clodius, his abolition of the poorest panel of jurors in the permanent courts, and his abolition of open elections which deprived the people of their ancient right of decision.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=528 (debts), 529 (lethal force, corn dole, {{lang|la|collegia}}), 530 (juries, elections)}} A popular turn against Caesar is also observed with reports that the two deposed tribunes were written-in on ballots at Caesar's advance consular elections in place of Caesar's candidates.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=548 (the two candidates for the consulship of 43&nbsp;BC were the only two men allowed to stand), 550}} Whether the Romans thought they had a tradition of tyrannicide is unclear;{{efn|The [[Lucius Tarquinius Superbus|last king]] and the [[second decemvirate]] were overthrown, not killed; [[Spurius Cassius Vecellinus|Spurius Cassius]] and [[Manlius Capitolinus]] were executed after trials, as was [[Spurius Maelius]] in an ostensibly legal process; [[Tiberius Gracchus]] was killed in a riot; [[Gaius Gracchus]] and [[Lucius Appuleius Saturninus|Saturninus]] were each killed after a ''[[senatus consultum ultimum]]''; [[Catiline]] had been allowed to leave Rome.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=575}} }} Cicero wrote in private as if the duty to kill tyrants was already given, but he made no public speeches to that effect and there is little evidence that the public accepted the logic of preventive tyrannicide.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=318, 573–75}} The philosophical tradition of the [[Plato]]nic [[Old Academy]] was also a factor driving Brutus to action due to its emphasis on a duty to free the state from tyranny.{{sfn|Tempest|2017|pp=95–99}} 

While some news of the conspiracy did leak, Caesar refused to take precautions and rejected escort by a bodyguard. The date decided upon by the conspirators was 15 March, the [[Ides of March]], three days before Caesar intended to leave for his Parthian campaign.{{sfn|Meier|1995|p=485}} News of his imminent departure forced the conspirators to move up their plans; the Senate meeting on the 15th would be the last before his departure.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=563}} They had decided that a Senate meeting was the best place to frame the killing as political, rejecting the alternatives at games, elections, or on the road.{{sfn|Tempest|2017|pp=99–100}} That only the conspirators would be armed at the Senate meeting, per Dio, also would have been an advantage. The day, 15 March, was also symbolically important as it was the day on which consuls took office until the mid-2nd century BC.{{sfn|Tempest|2017|p=100}}

[[File:Brutus & L. Plaetorius Cestianus, denarius, 42 BC, RRC 508-3.jpg|thumb|The [[Ides of March coin]], minted in 42&nbsp;BC, depicts [[Marcus Junius Brutus]]. The reverse depicts daggers and a [[Pileus (hat)|''pileus'']] symbolising their use to win back freedom.]]
Various stories purport that Caesar was on the cusp of not attending or otherwise being warned about the plot.{{sfn|Tempest|2017|p=100}}{{sfn|Meier|1995|pp=485–86, noting three: Caesar felt unwell and had to be persuaded by a conspirator to attend the Senate; one [[Artemidorus of Knidos]] gave Caesar a scroll informing on the conspiracy; the augur Spurinna allegedly prophesied misfortune for Caesar on the Ides}} Approached on his golden chair at the foot of the statue of Pompey, the conspirators attacked him with daggers. Whether he fell in silence, per Suetonius, or after reply to Brutus' appearance – {{lang|grc|kai su teknon?}} ("you too, child?") – is [[Last words of Julius Caesar|variantly recorded]].{{sfn|Tempest|2017|p=101–3, citing {{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=81–82}} }} He was stabbed at least twenty-three times and died at once.{{sfnm|Tempest|2017|1p=3–4, 261 n. 1|Meier|1995|2p=486 (reporting 23 wounds)}}<ref>{{harvnb|Tempest|2017|p=261 n. 1}} cites all ancient accounts: Nic. Dam., 58–106; {{harvnb|Plut. ''Caes.''|loc=60–68}}; {{harvnb|Plut. ''Brut.''|loc=8–20}}; {{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=76–85}}; {{harvnb|App. ''BCiv.''|loc=2.106–147}}; {{harvnb|Dio|loc=44.9–19}}.</ref>