Julius Caesar Murdered – 5

A few days after, his statues were seen adorned with royal diadems; and Flavius and Marullus, two of the tribunes, went and tore them off.

Continuing Julius Caesar Murdered,
our selection by Plutarch.

Previously in Julius Caesar Murdered.

Time: 44 BC
Place: Rome

A few days after, his statues were seen adorned with royal diadems; and Flavius and Marullus, two of the tribunes, went and tore them off. They also found out the persons who first saluted Caesar king and committed them to prison. The people followed with cheerful acclamations and called them Brutuses, because Brutus was the man who expelled the kings and put the government in the hands of the senate and people. Caesar, highly incensed at their behavior, deposed the tribunes and by way of reprimand to them, as well as insult to the people, called them several times Brutes and Cumceans.

Upon this, many applied to Marcus Brutus, who, by the father’s side, was supposed to be a descendant of that ancient Brutus and whose mother was of the illustrious house of the Servilli. He was also nephew and son-in-law to Cato. No man was more inclined than he to lift his hand against monarchy but he was withheld by the honors and favors he had received from Caesar, who had not only given him his life after the defeat of Pompey at Pharsalia and pardoned many of his friends at his request but continued to honor him with his confidence. That very year he had procured him the most honorable praetorship and he had named him for the consulship four years after, in preference to Cassius, who was his competitor; on which occasion Caesar is reported to have said, “Cassius assigns the strongest reasons but I cannot refuse Brutus.”

Some impeached Brutus after the conspiracy was formed; but, instead of listening to them, he laid his hand on his body and said, “Brutus will wait for this skin”; intimating that though the virtue of Brutus rendered him worthy of empire, he would not be guilty of any ingratitude or baseness to obtain it. Those, however, who were desirous of a change kept their eyes upon him only or principally at least; and as they durst not speak out plain, they put billets night after night in the tribunal and seat which he used as praetor, mostly in these terms: “Thou sleepest, Brutus,” or, “Thou art not Brutus.”

Cassius, perceiving his friend’s ambition a little stimulated by these papers, began to ply him closer than before and spur him on to the great enterprise; for he had a particular enmity against Caesar. Caesar, too, had some suspicion of him and he even said one day to his friends: “What think you of Cassius? I do not like his pale looks.” Another time, when Antony and Dolabella were accused of some designs against his person and government, he said: “I have no apprehensions from those fat and sleek men; I rather fear the pale and lean ones,” meaning Cassius and Brutus.

It seems, from this instance, that fate is not so secret as it is inevitable; for we are told there were strong signs and presages of the death of Caesar. As to the lights in the heavens, the strange noises heard in various quarters by night and the appearance of solitary birds in the Forum, perhaps they deserve not our notice in so great an event as this. But some attention should be given to Strabo the philosopher. According to him there were seen in the air men of fire encountering each other; such a flame appeared to issue from the hand of a soldier’s servant that all the spectators thought it must be burned, yet, when it was over, he found no harm; and one of the victims which Caesar offered was found without a heart. The latter was certainly a most alarming prodigy; for, according to the rules of nature, no creature can exist without a heart. What is still more extraordinary, many report that a certain soothsayer forewarned him of a great danger which threatened him on the ides of March and that when the day was come, as he was going to the senate house, he called to the soothsayer and said, laughing, “The ides of March are come”; to which he answered softly, “Yes; but they are not gone.”

The evening before, he supped with Marcus Lepidus and signed, according to custom, a number of letters, as he sat at table. While he was so employed, there arose a question, “What kind of death was the best?” and Caesar, answering before them all, cried out, “A sudden one.” The same night, as he was in bed with his wife, the doors and windows of the room flew open at once. Disturbed both with the noise and the light, he observed, by moonshine, Calpurnia in a deep sleep, uttering broken words and inarticulate groans. She dreamed that she was weeping over him, as she held him, murdered, in her arms. Others say she dreamed that the pinnacle was fallen, which, as Livy tells us, the senate had ordered to be erected upon Caesar’s house by way of ornament and distinction; and that it was the fall of it which she lamented and wept for. Be that as it may, the next morning she conjured Caesar not to go out that day if he could possibly avoid it but to adjourn the senate; and, if he had no regard to her dreams, to have recourse to some other species of divination or to sacrifices, for information as to his fate. This gave him some suspicion and alarm; for he had never known before, in Calpurnia, anything of the weakness or superstition of her sex, though she was now so much affected.

Continued.

We want to take this site to the next level but we need money to do that. Please contribute directly by signing up at https://www.patreon.com/history

Some History Moments selections posted before 2012 need to be updated to meet HM’s quality standards. These relate to: (1) links to outside sources for modern, additional information; (2) graphics; (3) navigation links; and (4) other presentation issues. The reader is assured that the author’s materiel is faithfully reproduced in all History Moments posts.