The Roman Famous Commander and Dictator Julius Caesar

 

Julius Caesar was the most famous commander and dictator in Rome. The populist political "star", a great writer and an excellent soldier who conquered Galatia (today's France, along with Belgium) and invaded Britain and Germany, managed to rise to power and become the most powerful man of his time.

When his enemies, the old protectors of the Senate, removed him from the leadership, Caesar crossed the Rubicon and invaded Italy. He continued to fight in the civil war that spread throughout the Mediterranean basin, achieving triumphant victories, and then tried to reconcile with his surviving enemies and persuade them to surrender to him and accept his rule as dictator. It was a very difficult mission that ended in his assassination in March of Species (on the 15th, that is, of the month).

The case of the assassination of Julius Caesar is a very dark story and for centuries there were several aspects of it that had not been revealed. What is widely known is that two Roman senators, Brutus and Gaius Cassius, organized his assassination, but that is only part of the truth

A key figure in the organization of his assassination is Dekimos, one of his old and trusted comrades-in-arms, whom Caesar loved dearly - was the man who persuaded him to go to the Senate on the morning of March 15th. Caesar had decided not to attend, pretending to be ill, but in fact he had been frightened by his wife, Calpurnia, who was constantly having nightmares.

Dekimos managed to change his decision, so Caesar went to the meeting of the Senate, only to announce its postponement. Not only was he unaware that more than 60 conspirators were waiting for him armed with daggers to kill him, but that Dekimos was one of the main organizers of the conspiracy that changed the course of history.

However, most historians cite Brutus and Cassius as the masterminds behind the conspiracy because they are also mentioned by Plutarch, who wrote about the assassination 150 years later, and by Shakespeare, who based his entire story on Plutarch. Thus Dekimos is always omitted from history. Shakespeare, in fact, mentions him by the wrong name, as Decio, and describes only the above scene.

However, there are many indications that Decimus was the main instigator of the assassination. His motives were not at all vague and his behavior shows how well organized the conspirators were. The oldest detailed source for Caesar's assassination states that Decimus was the leader of the conspiracy.

At some point, a few decades after the March March, Nicholas of Damascus, the Greek historian and itinerant philosopher, wrote the Life of Caesar , the biography of Octavian Augustus, who was the first emperor of Rome (27 BC - 14 A.D.). A later abbreviation that focuses on the assassination of Julius Caesar has survived from this biography.

Until recently, scholars did not attach much importance to Damascene's work because he worked for Augustus and therefore had a motive to attack the conspirators. A study a few years ago, however, reveals that Nicholas was a brilliant scholar of human nature and deserves more attention. A series of letters, also between Decimus and Cicero, all written after the assassination of Caesar, also shed light on the case, but there are doubts about these from some historians.

Unlike Brutus and Cassius, Decimus was Caesar's man. In the civil war between Caesar and the Roman general Pompey (49-45 BC), both Brutus and Cassius supported Pompey and then changed sides. Decimus supported Caesar from beginning to end. As long as the controversy lasted, Caesar appointed Dekimos as captain to rule Galatia as his successor. At the end of the war, in 45 BC, Decimus left Galatia and returned to Italy with Caesar.

Then things went wrong. between September of 45 BC. and in March 44, Decimus changed his mind about Caesar. It is not known why, perhaps what made him change his mind were the two triumphant parades in the autumn of 45 BC. in Rome, when Caesar's captains celebrated their victory by entering the city triumphantly, against every custom.

Caesar did not give the same privilege to Decimus when he defeated a savage Galatian tribe. He may have been infuriated by Caesar's meeting with his nephew Octavian (as Augustus was then known), whom he appointed as his successor in the war against Parthia (ancient Iran) in 44 BC, an enemy. of Rome in the eastern Mediterranean. Decimus, meanwhile, had to stay behind and rule Italian Galatia.

Whatever his motives, from the moment Caesar returned, Dekimos did not see him the same as before. He became the leader of the conspirators and their main spy. He was the only man who knew how Caesar, a man of his trust, thought and acted. In addition, Dekimos had under his control a group of gladiators who played a key role in the Species.

Caesar remained in Rome from October 45 to March 44 BC, the longest period he stayed there for years. He never revealed that he had specific plans, but his actions betrayed that he intended to change the government of Rome. He behaved more and more in authoritarian ways, adopting the title of Life Dictator. He was not a king, but acquired the equivalent of royal power.

There was another issue here, what would happen after Caesar's death. To his critics, the favor he showed to Octavian raised the frightening prospect of a dynasty.

Caesar was much loved by the Romans. There were many who reacted to his growing power with flattery. They gave him many privileges by voting, the most scandalous of which was that they called him "god", with the prospect of becoming a priest in a church. Those who saw him as a personal threat or a threat to democracy wanted to stop his activities and decided to assassinate him.

The plans for the assassination are confirmed (with testimonies) from the summer of 45 BC, but it took months for the operation to be organized. At least 60 men took part, of whom 20 can now be named. According to a writer who wrote about the assassination in the following years, Seneca, most of the conspirators were not Caesar's enemies, but his friends and supporters.

This of course, cannot be said of Brutus and Cassius, the most famous conspirators. Cassius was a military man and a former supporter of Pompey, who hated Caesar's authoritarian behavior. As for Brutus, he was not Caesar's friend Shakespeare at all. Brutus's mother was Caesar's ex-girlfriend. However, Brutus supported Pompey until his defeat in 48 BC. in the battle with Caesar, so he changed sides. He immediately betrayed his former leader, informing Caesar of Pompey when he broke out after the battle. His reward was the high positions that brought him to the position he held in the Senate.

The relationship they had was very good, until the summer of 45 AD. Brutus divorced his wife and remarried. His new wife was Porcia, his cousin and daughter of Caesar's greatest enemy, Cato. In the winter of 44, Caesar's opponents began to ask Brutus to honor the tradition of his ancestors, one of whom was the founder of the Roman Republic, Lucius Junius Brutus. Thus, out of love for his wife and at the urging of Caesar's opponents, Brutus turned against him.

The plan to assassinate Caesar was successful because it was meticulously planned and executed without error. Especially with the participation of generals such as Decimus, Cassius and the veteran commander of Caesar, Trebonius, he could hardly fail. The executors chose to kill Caesar themselves rather than hire assassins, a decision that shows the seriousness of their intent. And by hitting him in a Senate assembly, the murder became a public act rather than a private vendetta - more than just a murder.

And how professional the business was, can be seen from the deadly tool they chose. They attacked Caesar with daggers and not with swords. The swords were too big to hide in the tunics or in the Senate and difficult to use in such a small space. Specifically, they used the pugio, the military dagger that all legionnaires had. Military daggers were not only practical weapons, they were also respectable, so they showed again that they were not mere killers.

The place where the murder took place is also interesting. Most visitors to the ancient Agora of Rome think that Caesar was murdered there, in the building of the Roman Senate, but this is not true. He was not killed on the Capitol Hill either, according to Shakespeare. The assassination took place about a mile away from the Agora, at the mouth of Pompeii, a place where the Senate was concentrated, ironically built by its great opponent. It was part of a large complex of buildings that included a theater, a park, a porch, shops and offices.

The gladiatorial fights that took place in the theater on March 15 gave Dekimos an opportunity to gather the gladiators near the building of Pompey. The real reason was, if necessary, to act as a security force.

And although he was a very strong and skilful man in battle, the executioners acted quickly and took him by surprise, isolating their target before hitting it. Before Caesar could take his seat in Vima, several executioners sat behind his chair, while others surrounded him to distract him. Then they started attacking.

Tyllios a drunken soldier favored by Caesar, grabbed his hands disparagingly and pulled his tunic. With this signal, the other conspirators struck led by Servilio Casca. Caesar immediately asked Tillius, "Why do you use force?" this phrase is a medieval invention. Ancient writers mention that Caesar said to Brutus, "And you, my child?", But there is no evidence.

Caesar the old warrior tried to defend himself. He nailed Tillio with his stylus and managed to move backwards. Two of his supporters tried to reach him, but their conspirators blocked the way and chased them.

In the meantime, Trebonius had undertaken to catch up with Marco Antonio and keep him busy outside the Senate door. Antonios was a veteran soldier, strong and loyal to Caesar and could become very dangerous. If he had entered the Senate, he would have sat on the Step with Caesar and helped him.

Without help, Caesar could do little to defend himself. It only took a few minutes for him to die, succumbing to 23 knives, according to most sources. Before he died he wrapped the tunic around his face and fell at the feet of the statue of his opponent Pompey.

Despite the success of the conspirators and the execution of their plan, the assassination was not the panacea they had hoped for. Soon a civil war broke out and they all died violently. In addition the democracy they intended to defend disintegrated and paved the way for an empire.