Beware the Ides of March, to all who celebrate.
March 15, or the Ides of March, marks the day in 44 B.C. when the autocratic Roman dictator Julius Caesar was murdered, stabbed 23 times, by a group of Senators who called themselves “Liberators.”
An unhealthy 500 year old Republic had been suffering for years from wealth inequality, political gridlock and civil wars, and Caesar’s rule didn’t help.
- He bypassed the Senate on important matters, controlled the treasury, and earned the personal loyalty of the republic’s army by pledging to give retiring soldiers property from public land or use his personal fortune to buy it himself.
- He had coins made with his image.
- He reserved the right to accept or reject the election results of lower offices, and the people were worried he was going to declare himself King.
When the “Liberators” assassinated Caesar, they saw themselves as saviors of democracy and liberty, but they were soon shocked to find that outrage, rather than praise, greeted news of the dictator’s killing. If Caesar had been an autocrat, the lower and middle classes didn’t seem to mind as they benefitted from his radical reforms such as the cancellation of debts and adjustment of the tax code.
Instead of saving the Republic, the assassination plunged Rome further into civil war, and eventually saw the establishment of a Roman Empire.
From History.com
