Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times, and it still didn’t save the Republic

Many Roman senators feared that Julius Caesar intended to end the Republic and crown himself king. Their fears culminated on 15 March 44 BC, the famous Ides of March, when a group of conspirators assassinated him inside the Theatre of Pompey. Caesar was stabbed 23 times in one of history’s most famous political assassinations.

Ironically, his death did not save the Roman Republic. Instead, it plunged Rome into another civil war, ultimately leading to the rise of his adopted heir, Augustus, who became the first emperor of Rome. In trying to stop one powerful ruler, the conspirators unintentionally helped create the Roman Empire.

Caesar’s rise to power had been built on decades of military and political achievement. Born in 100 BC into the noble but not especially powerful Julian family, he rose through Roman public life through determination, political skill and extraordinary military talent, most notably during the Gallic Wars of 58 to 50 BC, which brought much of modern-day France, Belgium and parts of Switzerland under Roman control.

More than two thousand years after his death, Caesar’s influence remains extraordinary. His military campaigns are still studied in military academies, his name inspired royal titles such as Kaiser in Germany and Tsar in Russia, and his life inspired William Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/by Wilfredor