Editing Julius Caesar (section)

=== Aftermath of the assassination ===
{{anchor|funeral}}
{{further|War of Mutina|Second Triumvirate|Liberators' civil war}}
[[File:Marc Antony's Oration at Caesar's Funeral by George Edward Robertson.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1|''Marc Antony's Oration at Caesar's Funeral'' by [[George Edward Robertson]] (late 19th or early 20th century)]]

The assassins seized the Capitoline hill after killing the dictator. They then summoned a public meeting in the Forum where they were coldly received by the population. They were also unable to fully secure the city, as Lepidus – Caesar's [[Magister equitum|lieutenant in the dictatorship]] – moved troops from the [[Tiber Island]] into the city proper. Antony, the consul who escaped the assassination, urged an illogical compromise position in the Senate:{{sfn|Mackay|2009|p=316}} Caesar was not declared a tyrant and the conspirators were not punished.<ref>{{harvnb|Rawson|1994b|p=469|ps=. "Antony pointed out that logically, if Caesar was a tyrant, his body should be thrown into the Tiber and all his measures [rescinded]; if he was not, his murderers should be punished".}}</ref> Caesar's funeral was then approved. At the funeral, Antony inflamed the public against the assassins, which triggered mob violence that lasted for some months before the assassins were forced to flee the capital and Antony then finally acted to suppress it by force.{{sfn|Rawson|1994b|p=470}}

In 44 BC, there was a seven-day [[Great comet|cometary outburst]] that the Romans believed to represent the deification of Caesar, giving it the name [[Caesar's Comet]]. On the site of his cremation, the [[Temple of Caesar]] was begun by the triumvirs in 42&nbsp;BC at the east side of the main square of the [[Roman Forum]]. Only its altar now remains.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Richardson |first=L |title=Iulius, Divus, Aedes |encyclopedia=A new topographical dictionary of ancient Rome |year=1992 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=0-8018-4300-6 |pages=213–14}}</ref> The terms of the will were also read to the public: it gave a generous donative to the plebs at large and left as principal heir one [[Augustus|Gaius Octavius]], Caesar's great-nephew then at [[Apollonia (Illyria)|Apollonia]], and adopted him in the will.{{sfnm|Mackay|2009|1pp=318–19|Rawson|1994b|2p=471}}

Resumption of the pre-existing republic proved impossible as various actors appealed in the aftermath of Caesar's death to liberty or to vengeance to mobilise huge armies that led to a series of civil wars.{{sfn|Mackay|2009|pp=315–16}} The [[War of Mutina|first war]] was between Antony in 43&nbsp;BC and the Senate (including senators of both Caesarian and Pompeian persuasion) which resulted in Octavian – Caesar's heir – exploiting the chaos to seize the consulship and join with Antony and Lepidus to form the [[Second Triumvirate]].{{sfn|Boatwright|2004|pp=270–72}} After purging their political enemies in a [[Proscription|series of proscriptions]],{{sfn|Mackay|2009|p=332}} the triumvirs secured the deification of Caesar – the Senate declared on 1 January 42&nbsp;BC that Caesar would be placed among the Roman gods<ref>{{harvnb|Mackay|2009|p=334|ps=. Caesar's heir then took the style {{lang|la|divi filius}}, meaning "son of the deified one".}}</ref> – and marched on the east where a [[Liberators' civil war|second war]] saw the triumvirs defeat the tyrannicides in [[Battle of Philippi|battle]],{{sfn|Boatwright|2004|p=273}} resulting in a final death of the republican cause and a three-way division of much of the Roman world.{{sfnm|Mackay|2009|1p=335|Boatwright|2004|2p=274}} By 31&nbsp;BC, Caesar's heir had taken sole control of the empire, ejecting his triumviral rivals after two decades of civil war. Pretending to restore the republic, his masked autocracy was acceptable to the war-weary Romans and marked the establishment of a [[Roman Empire|new Roman monarchy]].{{sfn|Meier|1995|pp=494, 496}}
<!-- Detailed material from the War of Mutina through to Augustus' first settlement (or beyond) should not be in this article; it should be in those respective articles. -->