By 44 B.C., Rome had seen many victories under the rule of the first triumvirate, made up of Julius Caesar, General Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus, their military conquests had expanded Rome to include all of Gaul and much of what is now Egypt. As Caesar won campaign after campaign, his standing and popularity increased. After the death of Crassus and the ensuing civil war, as well as the assassination of Pompey, Caesar’s power continued to increase. Soon, he was made dictator for 10 years, and later dictator for life. Members of the senate, afraid of Caesar’s rapidly increasing power and disenchanted by his policies would conspire to assassinate him, hoping that the so-called tyrannicide would restore their power and, thus, the republican ways. However, due to their political insensitivity and lack of forethought, the murder of Caesar was not only dishonourable and unjustified, but a failure as the murder didn’t serve it’s purpose of restoring the republic and actually precipitated it’s end.
When plotting Caesar’s death, the senators involved failed to consider the fact that the liberties of the roman aristocrats and higher classes were not the liberties of Rome as such. Under Caesar the economic standing of the middle and lower classes had increased, and though masses had lost the ability to vote for most public officials, they had a higher chance of attaining public offices. Caesar had almost managed to accomplish what nearly all republican leaders before him had failed to do; breach the economic and social gap between the plebs and the patricians. The conspirators, though, thoughtlessly, failed to realize that other classes had interests different to their own. They hadn’t expected there to be any opposition to what they had done; they had, naïvely, expected the republic to rise out of Caesar’s body like a phoenix, greater than what it had come from. Understandably, the lower classes were extremely upset that a small group of aristocrats had killed the man who was doing them, the plebs, good simply because he wasn’t working to better the standing of the higher classes. Caesar’s progress was undone in all but the gain of land, the murderers’ blindness to the social reality of the majority of Rome created sociopolitical unrest that led to 13 years of civil war.
Marc Antony sought to capture Brutus and Cassius, the two main perpetrators of the assassination. However, he would need the power and wealth bestowed upon Octavian, Caesar’s adopted son, to raise an army and defeat them. This led to the formation of the second triumvirate, this time consisting of Antony, Octavian and Lepidus. However, after defeating Cassius and Brutus, the second triumvirate turned on itself, succumbing to ambition and jealousy. Antony, once married to Octavian’s sister, Octavia, divorced her to marry Cleopatra. This cut the familial ties binding him not only to Octavian, but to Rome itself; though the ties would be further cut when Antony and Cleopatra divided the southern empire amongst their children. It was at this point that the republic was truly dead- as those charged with restoring it and punishing the senators guilty of Caesar’s murder had turned running Rome into a family business. Antony’s actions led to the Battle of Actium, where Octavian was victorious, leading to the double suicide of Cleopatra and Antony. Four years later, Octavian became Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, creating the Roman Empire as we would know it until it’s fall.
The assassination of Caesar is dishonourable and unjustified because the only thing to come of it were events that would lead to the complete and indisputable end of the Roman Republic. The perpetrators, in their ignorance and working only in self interest, failed to consider the reactions of those loyal to Caesar. Not only that, but the conspirators hadn’t considered taking a diplomatic approach to the situation. Though Caesar left to go to the senate on the 15th of March, 44 B.C. to discuss a petition to limit his power, the petition was not real, but merely a ruse to get him to attend. However, there is no reason why the senators couldn’t have actually negotiated and compromised with Caesar until both parties were satisfied and knew that the best outcome had been reached. Instead, the aftermath of Caesar’s death resulted in yet another civil war and served to empower those who would see the end of the republic.
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