Editing Ides of March (section)

==Assassination of Caesar==
{{Main|Assassination of Julius Caesar}}
[[File:Eid Mar.jpg|thumb|[[Obverse|Reverse side]] of the [[Ides of March Coin]] (a [[denarius]]) issued by Caesar's assassin Brutus in the autumn of 42 BC, with the abbreviation ''EID MAR'' ({{lang|la|Eidibus Martiis}} – "on the Ides of March") under a "[[Pileus (hat)|cap of freedom]]" between two daggers]]

In modern times, the Ides of March is best known as the date on which [[Julius Caesar]] was assassinated in 44 BC. Caesar was stabbed to death at a meeting of the [[Roman senate|Senate]]. As many as 60 conspirators, led by [[Marcus Junius Brutus|Brutus]] and [[Gaius Cassius Longinus|Cassius]], were involved. According to [[Plutarch]],<ref name=plutarch>[[Plutarch]], ''[[Parallel Lives]]'', Caesar 63</ref> a seer had warned that harm would come to Caesar on the Ides of March. On his way to the [[Theatre of Pompey]], where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, "Well, the Ides of March are come", implying that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied, "Aye, they are come, but they are not gone."<ref name=plutarch/> This meeting is famously dramatised in [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]'', when Caesar is warned by the [[Fortune-telling|soothsayer]] to "beware the Ides of March."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/julius_caesar/3/ |title=William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene II |year=2010 |work=The Literature Network |publisher=Jalic, Inc |access-date=15 March 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/julius_caesar/9/ |title=William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene I |year=2010 |work=The Literature Network |publisher=Jalic, Inc |access-date=15 March 2010}}</ref> Roman biographer [[Suetonius]]<ref>Suetonius, ''Divus Julius'' 81.</ref> identifies the "seer" as a ''[[haruspex]]'' named Spurinna.

Caesar's assassination opened the final chapter in the [[crisis of the Roman Republic]]. After his victory in [[Caesar's civil war]], his death triggered a series of [[Roman civil wars|further Roman civil wars]] that would finally result in the rise to sole power of his adopted heir Octavian. In 27 BC, Octavian became emperor [[Augustus]], and thus he finally terminated the Roman Republic.<ref>"Forum in Rome," ''Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome'', p. 215.</ref> [[Augustan literature (ancient Rome)|Writing under Augustus]], [[Ovid]] portrays the murder as a sacrilege, since Caesar was also the {{lang|la|[[pontifex maximus]]}} of Rome and a priest of [[Vesta (mythology)|Vesta]].<ref>Ovid, ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'' 3.697–710; A.M. Keith, entry on "Ovid," ''Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome'', p. 128; Geraldine Herbert-Brown, ''Ovid and the Fasti: An Historical Study'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), p. 70.</ref> On the fourth anniversary of Caesar's death in 40 BC, after achieving a victory at the [[siege of Perugia]], Octavian executed 300 [[Roman senate|senators]] and [[equestrian order|equites]] who had fought against him under [[Lucius Antonius (brother of Mark Antony)|Lucius Antonius]], the brother of [[Mark Antony]].<ref>Melissa Barden Dowling, ''Clemency and Cruelty in the Roman World'' (University of Michigan Press, 2006), pp. 50–51; Arthur Keaveney, ''The Army in the Roman Revolution'' (Routledge, 2007), p. 15.</ref> The executions were one of a series of actions taken by Octavian to avenge Caesar's death. Suetonius and the historian [[Cassius Dio]] characterised the slaughter as a [[Sacrifice in ancient Roman religion|religious sacrifice]],<ref>Suetonius, ''Life of Augustus'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html#15 15.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220731043834/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus%2A.html#15 |date=31 July 2022 }}</ref><ref>[[Cassius Dio]] [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/48*.html#14 48.14.2.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221122175355/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/48%2A.html#14 |date=22 November 2022 }}</ref> noting that it occurred on the Ides of March at the new altar to the [[Divus Julius|deified Julius]].