PREVIEW： Epochs #196｜ Pompey and Caesar Part XXI
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Summary
Julius Caesar was the first Roman dictator, and one of the most feared men in history. He was a man of many names, but perhaps none more so than Caesar himself. His name was Caesar, and he was known to many as Caesar the Great, but to others, he was Caesar the King. And when he was assassinated by his own men, it was widely believed that he was the only candidate for the post of King.
Transcript
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Flip back to Appian, who tells us this, quote, four days before he intended to depart for his
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war in the east, that is, against the Parthians and the Getae, his enemies cut him down in the
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senate house, or more accurately, the theatre of Pompey. They may have resented his success
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and his now excessive power, or maybe, as some alleged, they longed for the republic of their
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ancestors and were afraid, knowing him well, that he would conquer these nations as well,
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and then indisputably become king. On reflection, I am of the opinion that the plot did indeed
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originate over his additional title, although the difference it made was only of a word,
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since in reality the dictator is exactly like a king. A pair of men in particular, both of whom
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had belonged to the party of Pompey, took the initiative in forming the conspiracy. These were
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Marcus Brutus, surnamed Capio, who was the son of that Brutus who had lost his life in the time of
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Sulla, and had found refuge with Caesar after the defeat at Pharsalus, and Gaius Cassius, the one who
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had surrendered his triremes to Caesar in the Hellespont. There was also Decimus Brutus
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Albinus, one of Caesar's most intimate associates. All three had always acted in a manner that had
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deserved the respect and trust they received from Caesar. He had placed matters of great importance in
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their hands, and on his departure for the campaign in Africa, had given them military commands and put them
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in charge of Gaul, Decimus of Transalpine, and Brutus of Cisalpine. At the present time, Brutus and Cassius
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were both about to be creators in the city, but they were quarrelling with each other over the so-called
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urban creatorship, which has greater prestige than the others, either because they were really competing
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for the honour, or in order to mount a pretense that they did not habitually act in concert over
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everything. When he made the decision between them, Caesar is supposed to have said to his companions
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that Cassius had right on his side, but that he favoured Brutus. Such was the kindness and honour
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he showed to the man in everything. It was even thought that Brutus was his son, because he was
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Cato's sister, Sevilla's lover, when Brutus was born. For this reason, when victory was in his hands
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at Pharsalus, he is said to have told his officers to make every effort to save Brutus. Brutus may have
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been ungrateful. He may either not have known or been sceptical or ashamed of his mother's lapse.
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He may have been excessively devoted to liberty and valued his country above all. Or perhaps,
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being a descendant of that Brutus who had once expelled the kings, he was needled and shamed
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to do just this deed by the people. For on the statues of the elder Brutus and on the judicial
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tribunal of the present day, there appeared many anonymous graffiti like,
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Brutus, have you been bragged? Brutus, are you a corpse? Or would you were with us now? Or your
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descendants are not worthy of you? Or you're no descendant of his? Anyway, these and many other
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remarks of the same sort inflamed the young man to the act as if it were in his blood. Rumours
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about the kingship became still more insistent. There was a meeting of the senate due to take place
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shortly, and Cassius took Brutus' arm and said, what are we going to do in the senate if Caesar's
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clique proposed to make him king? Brutus replied that he would not be at the senate. When Cassius
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persisted in asking, but what if they summon us as creators? What shall we do then, my good Brutus?
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He replied, I shall defend my country to the death. Then Cassius embraced him and said, is there a man
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among the nobility you would not win over with that sentiment? Or do you think it is the artisans
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and shopkeepers who write up slogans at your tribunal who shame you, and not the Roman aristocracy
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who ask the other creators for horse races and beast fights, but ask you for freedom as though
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it is a deed that was in your blood? This was how they revealed to each other at that moment for the
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first time these thoughts which they had in fact been long pondering. Each of them then sounded out
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his own friends and any associates of Caesar himself, if they knew them to be conspicuously brave.
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From their own acquaintances, they gathered two brothers, Caecilius and Buculaneus, and in addition
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Rubrius Ruga, Quintus Ligarius, Marcus Spurius, Servius Galba, Sextus Naso, and Pontius Aquila,
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these all from their own associates, and from Caesar's, the aforementioned Decimus, Gaius Casca,
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Trebonius, Tilius Kimber, and Minucius Bacillus. Interesting actually, one of those names jumps out to me,
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a nice little anecdote of Pontius Aquila. At one point soon after Caesar had returned from Spain,
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i.e. after he had become the sole ruler in Rome, during one of his triumphs as Caesar passed by,
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everyone would stand, but Aquila kept his seat, and Caesar is supposed to have noticed this and
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shouted out above the throng of the crowd something like, what's wrong Aquila? Take back the republic from
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me then, Aquila, and for a few days afterwards, when anyone came to him with official documents to
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sign, Caesar was supposed to have said, obviously with his tongue in his cheek, you know, I shall do
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this, but only if Aquila allows it, and if those anecdotes are true, it does, that does sort of speak
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volumes about Caesar wanting to be, you know, truly undisputed, but they are only anecdotes, who knows
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if they're really, really true. Appian goes on, when they, the conspirators, thought there were enough
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of them, and judged it unnecessary to share their project further, they made a compact with each
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other, without taking oaths, or making sacrifices. None of them backed out, or betrayed the plot, and
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they looked for an occasion, and a place to carry it out. Time was pressing, because usually plots, if
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they involve more than two or three, four people, will eventually get leaked, so once you go down that
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path, you've got to act sooner rather than later. Time was pressing, because Caesar was in four days
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of departing for his campaigns, and immediately acquiring a military guard. They had the Senate
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House in mind as a suitable spot, because they believed that the senators, even if they had not
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been forewarned, would eagerly associate themselves with the deed, as it is said to have happened in the
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case of Romulus, when he began to behave more like a despot than a king. They also thought that the deed,
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done like that earlier one in the Senate House, would appear to have been carried out, not as a piece of
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treachery, but on behalf of the community, and since it was an act performed in common interest,
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there would be no danger from Caesar's soldiers. Also, the credit would remain with them, for it
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would be well known that they had initiated it. These were the considerations which made them fix
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unanimously on the Senate House, but they were divided over how to proceed. Some thought that they
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should also make away with Antony, Caesar's fellow consul, who was the most powerful of his associates,
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and enjoyed the highest esteem among the soldiers. But Brutus said that if they killed only Caesar,
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they would win glory as tyrannicides for removing a king. But if they killed his associates, they would
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be thought to have acted out of personal enmity as partisans of Pompey. The conspirators found this
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point particularly persuasive and waited for the impending meeting of the Senate." So discussions were
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obviously had about whether there was a need, okay, we've got to do away, we've got to kill Caesar,
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but is it just him? Or do we need to do away with people that would, you know, go on and fight a
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vendetta on his behalf? Is killing Caesar, just Caesar, enough to put an end to his power base? Or will a
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faction, a Caesarian faction, live on, fight on, even if the man himself is dead? Well, they decide that
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they're only going to kill Caesar. And again, we all know, don't we, that that was a mistake. Probably the
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prudent thing to have done was to do away with Mark Antony as well. But Brutus didn't want to do
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that. Appian continues. The day before the meeting, Caesar went to dinner with Lepidus, his master of
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horse. He brought Decimus Brutus Albinus to join in the drinking. And as they passed the cups around,
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he put the question, what is the best sort of death for a human being? Various views were expressed,
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but he himself thought a sudden death best of all. In this way, he forecast his own fate and the
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subject of his conversation was what was to happen the next day. In the night, he lay in a heavy sleep
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as a result of the drink. And his wife, Colpurnia, who had a dream in which she saw his body streaming
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with blood, tried to stop him leaving the house. When he offered sacrifice, the signs repeatedly
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proved ominous. He was actually on the point of sending Antony to dismiss the Senate. But Decimus,
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who was there, persuaded him not to lay himself open to the charge of disrespect, but to go himself
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and dismiss it. And he was carried in a litter to do so. There was a performance taking place
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in Pompey's theatre, and the Senate was to meet in one of the rooms beside the theatre,
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as was the usual custom when the shows were on. From early in the morning, Brutus and his associates
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had been in the colonnades in front of the theatre, transacting business with any who needed them
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in their capacity as creators. But when they heard about the results of Caesar's sacrifices
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and the postponement of the meeting of the Senate, they were completely at a loss,
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almost panicked and lost their bottle. At this point, someone grasped Casca by the hand and said,
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you kept it from me, although I am your friend. But Brutus has told me, i.e. of this plot.
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Casca was conscience-stricken and thrown into sudden confusion. But the man smiled at him and said,
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wherever will you get the money to stand for the Adelship? Whereupon Casca recovered.
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Brutus himself and Casca were deep in thought talking to each other when a senator, Popilius
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Leens, drew them towards him and said that he joined with them in praying for success for what
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they had in mind and encouraged them to make haste. They were disconcerted, but in their panic said
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nothing. So the secret, the supposedly secret plot is basically out. Those are people that hadn't been
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sort of formally asked to join it are somehow aware of it. Like I say, any conspiracy that's more than
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really a tiny number of people is kind of doomed to leak. Appian goes on, when Caesar was already
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being carried on his way, a member of his household who had learnt about the plot came running to reveal
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such information as he had acquired. He went to Colpurnia and saying only that he needed Caesar on
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urgent business, waited for him to return from the Senate because he did not possess full information
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about the affair. Artemidorus, who had been Caesar's host on Nidus, ran into the Senate, but found him
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killed moments before. Someone else gave him a note about the conspiracy as he was sacrificing outside
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immediately before entering the hall where the Senate was meeting, and this was found in his hand after
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his death. After he stepped out of the litter, Leens, the man who had shortly before prayed for success
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with Cassius and his companions, went up to him and talked privately with him in an animated fashion.
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At once, some of the conspirators were perturbed by the sight and duration of the exchange, and they
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made signs to each other to commit suicide before being arrested. But as the conversation continued,
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and they saw that Leens was behaving like someone who was not revealing information so much as
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insistently requesting a favour, they breathed again, and when in addition they saw him embrace Caesar at
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the end, they recovered their courage. It is the custom for the magistrates to take the omens before
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entering the Senate, and again Caesar's first sacrificial victim was without a heart, or according
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to others, without a head to the intestines. When the soothsayer said that this was a portent of death,
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Caesar laughed and said that such the same had happened to him in Spain when he was fighting Pompey.
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The soothsayer replied that on that occasion also he had been in extreme danger, but now the portent was
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even more deadly. Caesar then told him to repeat the sacrifice, but even so none of the victims
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yielded good omens. Ashamed about wasting the time of the Senate, and pressed by his enemies in their
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guise of friends, he spurned the sacred ritual and made his entrance, for Caesar had to suffer
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Caesar's fate." End quote. Let's cut back at this moment to Plutarch. He says, quote,
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Now Antony, who is a true friend of Caesar's, and also a strong man physically, was detained outside
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the Senate house by Brutus Albinus, who deliberately engaged him in a long conversation.
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Caesar himself went in, and the Senate rose in his honour. Some of Brutus's party took their places
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behind his chair, and others went to meet him, as though they wished to support the petition being
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made by Tilius Kimber, on behalf of his brother, who was in exile. So, all joining in with him in his
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entreaties, they accompanied Caesar to his chair. Caesar took his seat, and continued to reject their
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requests, as they pressed him more and more urgently. He began to grow angry with them.
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Tilius then took hold of his toga with both hands, and pulled it down from his neck. This was the
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signal for the attack. The first blow was struck by Casca, who wounded Caesar in the neck with his
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dagger. The wound was not mortal, and not even a deep one, coming as it did from a man who was no
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doubt much disturbed in mind at the beginning of such a daring venture. Caesar, therefore, was able
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to turn round, and grasp the knife, and hold on to it. At almost the same moment, the striker of the
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blow, and he who had struck, cried out together, Caesar in Latin, Casca, you villain, what are you
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doing? While Casca called to his brother in Greek, help brother, so it began. And those who were not in the
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conspiracy, which was the majority of the senators present, by the way, including Cicerone, those who
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were not in the conspiracy were horror-struck, and amazed at what was being done, and they were afraid
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to run away, and afraid to come to Caesar's help. They were petrified, basically, stuck to the spot.
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They were too afraid even to utter a word, but those who had come prepared for the murder all
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bared their daggers, and hemmed Caesar in on every side. Whichever way he turned, he met the blows of
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daggers, and saw the cold steel aimed at his face, and at his eyes. So he was driven this way and that,
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and like a wild beast in the toils, had to suffer from the hands of each one of them. For it had been
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agreed that they must all take part in this sacrifice, and all flesh themselves with his blood.
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Because of this compact, even Brutus gave him one wound in the groin. Some say that Caesar fought
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back against all the rest, darting this way and that to avoid the blows, and crying out for help.
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But when he saw that Brutus had drawn his dagger, he covered his head with his toga and sank down
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to the ground. Either by chance, or because he was pushed there by his murderers, he fell down
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against the pedestal on which the statue of Pompey stood. And the pedestal was drenched with his blood,
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so that one might have thought that Pompey himself was presiding over this act of vengeance against
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his enemy, who lay there at his feet, struggling convulsively under so many wounds. He is said to have
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received 23 wounds, and many of his assailants were wounded by each other, as they tried to plant all
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those blows in one body." End quote. So, sounds like quite a melee. Certainly no other way to picture it
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than just a vicious attack. For a few more details, let's let Appian tell his version of it. He says this,
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The conspirators left Trebonius behind to detain Antony in conversation outside the doors,
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and when Caesar had taken his ceremonial seat, they crowded round him like friends, their daggers
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hidden. One of them, Tilius Kimber, approached him from the front and begged for his exiled brother's
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return. Caesar would not agree at all and wished to defer a decision. Kimber then took hold of Caesar's
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purple toga, as though he was still pleading with him, and ripped the garment away and pulled it from
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his neck, shouting, What are you waiting for, friends? Casca, who was standing behind Caesar's
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head, aimed the first blow at his throat, but missed and wounded him in the chest. Caesar wrenched his
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toga out of Kimber's grasp, gripped Casca's hand, and as he sprang off the seat, welled round and pulled
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Casca after him with enormous force. So Caesar fought back. There's life in the old dog yet. He didn't go
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down easily. While he was in this position, one of the others drove a dagger into his side, stretching
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as it was in the action of twisting. Cassius also struck him in the face, Brutus in the thigh,
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and Bucilianus in the back, so that for a few moments Caesar kept turning from one to the other
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of them, with various cries like a wild beast. But after Brutus's blow, whether or not giving up hope
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now, he wound himself in his toga and fell neatly at the foot of Pompey's statue. Even then, after he had
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fallen, they went on savaging him until he had 23 wounds, and in the scuffle, many of them struck each
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other with their daggers." And there is, of course, that detail, which may be apocryphal, of Caesar
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when he saw Brutus saying something along the lines of, you too, my son, even you, Brutus,
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et tu, Brute. And Caesar must have known at a certain point that he had been done to death before he
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actually died and lost consciousness. He knew that he was done for. So that is the sad and also fairly
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ignominious death of Caesar, isn't it? This great man, once again, like Pompey in the end, just cut
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down, just butchered by lesser men. And so a bit like Alexander, cut off before his time. Who knows
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what he might have gone on to do had Caesar left Rome and gone on to fight a war in the east against
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the Parthians? Might he have been as successful as Trajan or Alexander in the east? Had he beat
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the Parthians, would he have gone all the way to the Indus Valley? Or who knows? But Caesar is cut
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off prematurely, murdered, and his body just left there. Again, a parallel with Pompey. No one picked
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up the body. It was just left there. There's the image of all the senators, both those that were in
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on it and those that weren't, all running out, pouring out of the theatre of Pompey or the building
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adjacent to it. And the body just left there. Kind of sad, really, even if you're not a fan of
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Caesar. The sort of immediate fall from grace, going from the greatest, most important, most
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powerful man in the world, or at least the Mediterranean world, to just a dead body. Nothing
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more than a piece of meat on the ground. That's how quickly fortune can change. The vicissitudes of
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fortune, as Edward Gibbon might say, how quickly lady fate can turn on you. And so although I shall be
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ending my story there with the death of Caesar, I've got to end it somewhere. At some point in
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the future, after we've left the ancient world or ancient Rome for a while and talked about some
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other things on Epochs, at some point I will return to the story. And I should almost certainly pick it
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up from that point. What happens next? The story of Antony and Octavian and Cassius and Brutus and
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Lepidus and everything else. Because, of course, nothing stops. History hasn't stopped, although my
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story has. Nothing is over. In fact, there is another round of civil wars that go on for, what, like 10
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years? Another 10 years? And they're even more brutal and bloody than the ones that have come before.
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So, although there is a lot more to this story to go, I'm going to end my particular narrative
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there. And so I hope you've enjoyed it. I hope I've been able to do the story some justice.
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As always, let me know in the comments your thoughts and feelings. It's always much appreciated.
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