Cold-Blooded Killings by Charlotte Greig

Author:Charlotte Greig
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cold-Blooded Killings
ISBN: 9781848586147
Publisher: Arcturus Digital Limited
Published: 2006-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

Julius Caesar was killed by a group of aristocratic rivals at a time when his popularity with the people was at an all-time high

The plot

The conspirators met secretly in each other’s houses to plan the attack. It was initially proposed that Caesar should be ambushed and killed while he went on one of his favourite walks, along the ‘Sacred Way’; others suggested that he should be pushed over a bridge during the forthcoming elections; yet others thought that the murder should take place during a gladiator show. The final decision was to kill Caesar during a session at the Senate, so that there would be few witnesses. Another advantage of attacking Caesar in the Senate was that weapons could be hidden beneath the togas that Senate members always wore.

Caesar had set the date for the next meeting of the Senate on 15 March, known as ‘The Ides of March’ in the Roman calendar. Legend has it that he was told by a soothsayer to avoid this date; the soothsayer told him to ‘beware the Ides of March’, but he ignored this advice and went ahead. As the day approached, rumours began to circulate as to what was going to happen. Some of Caesar’s friends asked him to avoid the Senate house, and his wife Calpurnia declared that she had had a vision in a dream which showed that he would be harmed if he went out that day. Caesar himself reportedly felt unwell, and was suffering from dizziness, a condition that occasionally afflicted him. However, he was eventually persuaded to attend the Senate by his trusted friend Brutus, who told him to ignore ‘idle gossip’ and the advice of his wife, which was merely based on irrational dreams. Brutus pointed out that Caesar would be dishonouring the Senate if he did not go that day.

It was the practice among Roman priests to make sacrifices to the gods on behalf of their rulers, and before Caesar went in to the Senate chamber, he took part in one of these rituals. The priests told him that the omens were bad, whereupon Caesar became impatient with the procedures and left the priests to their work, promising to return later in the day. Frightened by the bad omens, Caesar’s friends begged him not to continue to the Senate chamber, but once again Brutus intervened, telling him that his power as dictator was mightier than that of the priests, and taking him by the hand to lead him on to his place of death.

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