Assassination of Julius Caesar

As Caesar entered, the senate rose in his honour, but as soon as he was seated the conspirators surrounded him in a body, putting forward Tullius Cimber of their number with a plea in behalf of his brother, who was in exile.

At first, Caesar merely rejected their pleas, and then, when they would not desist, tried to free himself from them by force.

And now Caesar had received many blows and was looking about and seeking to force his way through his assailants, when he saw Brutus setting upon him with drawn dagger.

Cæsar, who had now become supreme in Rome, was assassinated in 44 bc, and though Cicero was not a sharer in the conspiracy, he seems to have approved the deed.

But the conspirators were afraid of Antony’s strength, and of the consideration which his office gave him, and therefore appointed some of their number to look out for him, in order that, when Caesar entered the senate-chamber and their deed was about to be done, they might engage Antony outside in conversation about some urgent matter and detain him there.

For, he said, while people were going out to meet Caesar on his return from Spain, Antony had travelled with him and shared his tent, and he had sounded him quietly and cautiously;

This was done as planned, and Caesar fell in the senate-chamber.

And so, when the deed had been accomplished by the partisans of Brutus and Cassius, and the friends of Caesar were combining against the perpetrators of it, and it was feared that the city would again be plunged into civil wars, Antony, as consul, convened the senate and said a few words about concord, while Cicero, after a lengthy speech appropriate to the occasion, persuaded the senate to imitat …

But in the design that was forming against Caesar he took no part, although he was one of the closest companions of Brutus and was thought to be distressed at the present and to long for the old state of affairs more than anybody else.

indeed, some attribute to him the origin of the whole enterprise, declaring that he took the lead in the plot against Caesar when Brutus was passive.

Moreover, the gravest charge which is brought against Brutus, namely, that although his life was spared by the kindness of Caesar, together with the lives of all the fellow captives for whom he wished to intercede, and although Caesar held him a friend and honoured him above many, he struck down his preserver with his own hand,—this charge no one can bring against Dion.

For not on a sudden, nor alone, or with a few helpers only, did he fall upon him and slay him, nay, his plan was long in forming, and his attack was made with many helpers, not one of whom proved false to him.