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Ancient Rome Today
March 15, 44 BC
All the News Romans Need to Know
Rome Italy
BREAKING NEWS Julius Caesar
Stabbed By Senate
By Josh Habius
Today March 15, 44 B.C., we mourn because our great and powerful ruler Julius Caesar was
assassinated. The Senate decided
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was getting ready to speak, the conspirators surrounded him. Tillius then grabbed Caesar’s robe
with both hands and violently pulled it from his neck. The rest of the accomplices took out daggers
and began to strike Caesar until his death. According to recent reports, his final words were, “Et tu,
Brute?” He was betrayed by one of his closest friends. Now tonight we would like to look back on
the life of Julius Caesar.
In 60 B.C., Julius Caesar formed a triumvirate with Crassus and Pompey to help restore
order to Rome. They helped to get him elected consul in 59 B.C. After serving his one year as the
consul, he went to Gaul and when he arrived, he appointed himself governor of Gaul. Over the next
eight years, he was able to conquer the entire territory that was Gaul. In his journal, the
Commentaries, he showed how he rallied his troops in battle: “I had no shield with me but I
snatched one from a soldier in the rear ranks and went forward to the front line. Once there, I
called to all the centurions by name and shouted encouragement to the rest of the men…My arrival
gave the troops fresh hope…” However, his alliance with Pompey turned to bloody hate.
Once good friends in a triumvirate, Pompey and Julius Caesar were now political rivals.
Pompey ordered Julius Caesar to return back to Rome, but without his army with him. Caesar
disobeyed orders and marched into Rome with his army. He defeated Pompey’s forces in Rome,
Africa, Spain, and Egypt. Then, in 46 B.C., he was elected dictator and in 44 B.C., the Senate
declared him “dictator for life”. He ruled as an absolute ruler who made drastic changes to Rome.
He expanded the Senate, giving more jobs to his friends and allies. He worked to create jobs, such
as constructing new public buildings, for the poor. He helped to make changes where they needed
to be made and changed Rome forever.
Roman historian Plutarch stated that the reason Caesar was
so effective was that his love and loyalty always gave his men a
new hope. “He was so much master of the good-will and hearty
service of his soldiers that those who in other expeditions were but
ordinary men displayed a courage past defeating or withstanding
when they went upon any danger where Caesar’s glory was
concerned…This love of honor and passion for distinction were
Julius Caesar being stabbed by
inspired into them and cherished in them by Caesar himself, who,
the Senate
by his unsparing distribution of money and honors, showed them that he did not heap up wealth
from the wars for his own luxury, or the gratifying his private pleasures, but that all he received
was but a public fund laid by the reward and encouragement of valor…” Genius Geyerius agreed
and added , “Caesar knew our struggles because he fought in all of our battles alongside us. His
bravery inspired us all to do the best that we could and to never accept defeat. Without him there,
we never would have been able to conquer all this land that is now a part of the great Roman
Empire.” Many in Rome will mourn the loss of Julius Caesar, one of the greatest conquerors ever.
Source(s):
World History: Perspectives on the Past by D.C. Heath
World History (The Complete Idiot’s Guide) by Timothy C. Hall
A History of Europe by J.M. Roberts
N.Y.: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1996
The Internet Classics Archive – Caesar by Plutarch
Ancient Romans by Rosaline F and Charles F Baker