On the Ides of March (March 15) in 44 BC, Julius Caesar was assassinated inside the Curia.
“When he sat down, the conspirators gathered around him as if to pay him honor, and immediately Cimber Tullius, who had taken on the task of giving the signal, approached him as if to ask something, and since Caesar refused and gestured to postpone the matter, he grabbed him by the toga on both shoulders and shouted at him “But this is violence!” one of the two struck him in the face, wounding him just below the throat.
When he realized that daggers were coming at him from all sides, he wrapped his head in his toga to fall more gracefully.
He was stabbed 23 times.
It is said that, addressing Marcus Brutus* as he lunged at him, he exclaimed “You too, my son!”
Almost none of his assassins survived more than 3 years, and none died a natural death; they were all condemned and perished in different circumstances, some in shipwrecks, others in battle; some took their own lives with the same dagger they used to violate Caesar’s body.”
* Adopted son of Caesar, already pardoned for his betrayal during the clash against Pompey
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (first half of the 2nd century AD
“Lives of the Caesars”
trans. by Settimio Lanciotti
1 comment
Es sind nicht die ‚Ideen‘ des März sondern die ‚Iden’ des März!!