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The Ides of March17 March 44 BCIssue the Fifth

Senate lets Caesar’s killers go unpunished, and keeps all his acts

Reconstructed from historical sources

The Senate lets the men who killed Caesar go unpunished but keeps every act of Caesar in force; with the sons of Antony and Lepidus held as hostages, Brutus and Cassius come down from the Capitol and dine with Caesar’s friends.

A silver denarius struck at Rome some eighteen years ago by the moneyer Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus: the veiled head of Concord, with the word CONCORDIA; on the other face, a trophy and captives.
A silver denarius struck at Rome some eighteen years ago by the moneyer Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus: the veiled head of Concord, with the word CONCORDIA; on the other face, a trophy and captives.Photograph by Classical Numismatic Group (cngcoins.com), via Wikimedia Commons, Dec. 31, 62 BC · CC BY-SA 2.5

ROME, the Liberalia.—The men who killed Caesar are to go unpunished, and every act of Caesar’s is to stand. So the Senate decided this morning, on the motion of the consul Antony.

The senators were summoned before dawn, not to the Capitol, where the gladiators are, but to the temple of Tellus, near Antony’s own house. Antony, who said yesterday that he would put the killers’ fate to the house, rose and proposed an amnesty.

Few in the house were cold towards the men on the Capitol. Some senators wished to invite them into the sitting under a pledge of safety; some wished to thank them, and some to honour them for the deed. The rest would vote them no honours, but agreed that they should go unpunished.

Have a care lest you suffer a like fatea man in the crowd, calling out to Antony and Lepidus outside the Senate

Antony then turned the house to what must become of Caesar’s acts. Caesar, he reminded the senators, had given out the offices of the city and the commands of provinces and armies, some of them for five years ahead, and many in the chamber hold their places by his grant. Declare Caesar a tyrant, Antony told them, and every one of those grants falls with him.

While the house debated, a crowd that had been gathering outside for some time called for Antony and Lepidus, and the two went out to it. As they stood above the throng, one man called out to them: “Have a care lest you suffer a like fate.” Antony loosened his tunic and showed a coat of mail beneath.

The house was persuaded, and passed its decree: “There shall be no prosecution for the murder of Caesar, but all of his acts and decrees are confirmed, because this policy is deemed advantageous to the commonwealth.”

Appian, Civil Wars book 2 (tr. Horace White, 1899) · Plutarch, Life of Antony (Loeb, tr. Perrin, 1920) · Appian, Civil Wars book 2 (tr. Horace White, 1899).

Men on the Capitol come down as the sons of Antony and Lepidus go up

Reconstructed from historical sources

The Capitol hill at Rome, seen from the Aventine.
The Capitol hill at Rome, seen from the Aventine.Photograph by Jensens, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

ROME, the Liberalia.—Brutus, Cassius and their party came down from the Capitol after the Senate’s vote, but not on the strength of the vote alone. They held out until the sons of Antony and of Lepidus had been sent up to them as hostages, and tonight the sons of the consul and of the master of the horse are on the Capitol.

The men who killed Caesar now sit at the tables of Caesar’s friends. Brutus is dining with Lepidus and Cassius with Antony, both under a promise of safety; the rest of their party are the guests of friends.

At Antony’s table the host put a question to his guest: “Have you perchance a dagger under your arm even now?”

Have you perchance a dagger under your arm even now?Mark Antony, consul, to Cassius at dinner

Cassius answered: “Yes, and a big one, if you too should desire to make yourself tyrant.”

Cassius Dio, Roman History book 44 (Loeb, tr. Cary, 1916) · Cassius Dio, Roman History book 44 (Loeb, tr. Cary, 1917) · Plutarch, Life of Brutus (Loeb, tr. Perrin, 1918) · Cassius Dio, Roman History book 44 (Loeb, 1916).

Brutus pledges that Caesar’s veterans will keep their lands

Reconstructed from historical sources

ROME, the Liberalia.—Marcus Brutus has promised the veterans whom Caesar settled on the land that they will keep it, and that owners turned off to make room for them will be paid out of public funds.

He made the pledge in a speech to the people on the Capitol, and the crowd approved it.

Brutus first set out his charges against Caesar. Caesar, he said, stripped men of their offices, passed over the Senate and the people, drove out tribunes and misused the public money.

A tyrant, he told the crowd, is owed no oath, and he and his friends had put their country before the posts they held under Caesar.

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

Veterans set on Cinna, and Lepidus stops them burning him out

Reconstructed from historical sources

ROME, the Liberalia.—Veterans and a crowd set upon the praetor Cinna this morning as the Senate gathered at Tellus, and would have burned him out had Lepidus not stopped them.

Cinna spoke against Caesar in the Forum yesterday. Lepidus, master of the horse, had brought his soldiers to the Senate’s sitting, and it was he who held the attackers back.

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

In Brief

Cicero and Plancus rise with Antony for concord

ROME.—Plancus and Cicero rose in the Senate this morning with Antony, the consul, to speak for amnesty and concord.

Plutarch, Life of Brutus (Loeb, tr. Perrin, 1918).

Senators refuse new elections

ROME.—Antony offered to put one question to the house first: whether the men holding office by Caesar’s grant should give it up. The senators protested against new elections, and the offices stand with those who hold them.

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

Start The Ides of March from issue one tomorrow

Wayback Wire · No. 5 · 17 March 44 BC