WaybackWire

The news as it happened.

The Ides of March16 March 44 BCIssue the Fourth

Lepidus’s soldiers hold the Forum as Caesar’s friends call for vengeance

Reconstructed from historical sources

Caesar’s friends hold the Forum under arms and talk of vengeance; Brutus speaks to a silent crowd that turns on Cinna, a consul goes over to the Capitol, and Antony puts the killers’ fate to the Senate.

A silver denarius struck at Rome some fourteen years ago by the moneyer Marcus Aemilius Lepidus: on one face, a statue on horseback of his ancestor of the same name, holding a trophy.
A silver denarius struck at Rome some fourteen years ago by the moneyer Marcus Aemilius Lepidus: on one face, a statue on horseback of his ancestor of the same name, holding a trophy.Photograph by Classical Numismatic Group (cngcoins.com), via Wikimedia Commons, Dec. 31, 58 BC · CC BY-SA 3.0

ROME, the day after the Ides.—Caesar’s friends have taken the Forum. In the night Lepidus, master of the horse, occupied it with his soldiers, and at dawn he spoke out against the men who killed Caesar.

The consul Antony is under arms. The soldiers who last night stood on the Campus Martius now hold the heart of the city.

Many have come over to the two of them, some out of loyalty to the dead man, some from fear, and some in hope of gain. Appeals have gone out to the men who hold grants from Caesar.

In the Forum Caesar’s friends now say openly that “Caesar must be avenged”.

Cassius Dio, Roman History book 44 (Loeb, tr. Cary, 1917) · Nicolaus of Damascus (tr. C. M. Hall, 1923).

Antony refuses a pardon on his own word and calls the Senate

Reconstructed from historical sources

ROME, the day after the Ides.—Antony, the consul, will not let the men who killed Caesar go free on his own word. He has put their fate to the Senate, which he has called to the precinct of Tellus.

His answer, promised to the Capitol last night, came after Brutus and Cassius sent their kinsmen and friends to him and to Lepidus today. The envoys asked that the killers go unpunished, pleading love of country and the city’s weariness of civil strife.

Antony told them he bore the men no private hatred, but that his oath to Caesar bound him to punish the guilty. He would lay the matter before the Senate and abide by whatever it decided.

it would be sacrilegious to pass by the murder of Caesar unavengedone of Caesar's friends at the council in Antony's house

Before he gave that answer, Caesar’s friends met in council at Antony’s. Lepidus was for fighting; Hirtius was for talking terms. One of those present told the council that “it would be sacrilegious to pass by the murder of Caesar unavenged”.

Antony sided with Hirtius.

Appian, Civil Wars book 2 (tr. Horace White, 1899) · Nicolaus of Damascus (tr. C. M. Hall, 1923) · Cassius Dio, Roman History book 44 (Loeb, tr. Cary, 1917).

Crowd hears Brutus in silence, then turns on Cinna

Reconstructed from historical sources

The Rostra, the speakers' platform in the Forum at Rome.
The Rostra, the speakers’ platform in the Forum at Rome.Photograph by O. Mustafin, via Wikimedia Commons · CC0

ROME, the day after the Ides.—The people in the Forum heard Brutus out without a sound today, then broke into a rage when the praetor Cinna called Caesar a tyrant.

Brutus and his party had come down from the Capitol into the Forum, and Brutus spoke to the people in a speech made to win them and fit for the hour. The crowd neither cried out against the deed nor cheered it.

Then Cinna, a praetor and a kinsman of Caesar by marriage, threw off his praetor’s robe. He called Caesar a tyrant, and the men who killed him “tyrannicides”.

At that the crowd turned. It raged at Cinna and reviled him, and Brutus and his party withdrew to the Capitol.

Plutarch, Life of Caesar (Loeb, tr. Perrin, 1919) · Plutarch, Life of Brutus (Loeb, tr. Perrin, 1918) · Appian, Civil Wars book 2 (tr. Horace White, 1899).

Dolabella takes up the consulship and goes to the Capitol

Reconstructed from historical sources

ROME, the day after the Ides.—Dolabella, whom Caesar had named consul for the rest of the year, has taken up the office at once and gone over to the men who killed Caesar.

He spoke briefly to the people and then went up to the Capitol to join them.

Rome now has two consuls on opposite sides: Antony under arms with Caesar’s friends below, and Dolabella with Brutus and his party on the hill.

Cassius Dio, Roman History book 44 (Loeb, tr. Cary, 1917) · Cassius Dio, Roman History book 44 (Loeb, 1916) · Appian, Civil Wars book 2 (tr. Horace White, 1899).

Glad, fearful or heartened: the talk of the city

Reconstructed from historical sources

ROME, the day after the Ides.—Some friends of the Republic are glad of the change, but sorry that other men under suspicion were not struck down as well.

Others, thinking of Sulla’s time, warn that a beaten party can rise again, and that Caesar’s friends are dangerous even with Caesar dead.

The more honest citizens, for their part, have taken heart on learning how few the killers are.

Nicolaus of Damascus (tr. C. M. Hall, 1923) · Appian, Civil Wars book 2 (tr. Horace White, 1899).

In Brief

Caesar’s money and papers go to Antony’s house

ROME.—Caesar’s money and his papers have been carried to the house of Antony, the consul. They are now in his keeping.

Appian, Civil Wars book 2 (tr. Horace White, 1899).

Magistrates ordered to watch the city by night

ROME.—Antony has ordered the magistrates to keep watch over Rome by night, and fires are burning in the city.

Appian, Civil Wars book 2 (tr. Horace White, 1899).

The physician’s finding: one wound was mortal

ROME.—The physician Antistius judges that of all the wounds Caesar received, only one was mortal: the second, in the breast.

Suetonius, Divus Julius (Loeb, tr. Rolfe, 1914).

Start The Ides of March from issue one tomorrow

Wayback Wire · No. 4 · 16 March 44 BC