It was a day of triumph for Julius Caesar. He wasn returning to Rome after defeating the sons of Pompey, a rebellious Roman general. Roman citizens waited along the streets to watch Caesar’s triumphant parade. But not everyone was happy about his victory and the death of his enemies.
When Caesar arrived, his generals and many others, Brutus, Antony and Cassius, were also with him. A soothsayer pushed through the crowd and, pointing to Caesar, warned him, “Beware of the Ides of March!” The Ides of March fell on the fifteenth, but Caesar took no heed and proceeded on his way.
Cassius was discontented and was conspiring to kill Caesar, collecting some of the important senators to join him. He incited Brutus against Caesar, as he was Caesar’s favourite. He said that everyone treated Caesar as a king, though he was an ordinary man. Brutus remarked that the people of Rome wanted Caesar to be the King. Cassius blamed himself and all Romans for Caesar’s rise to power.
Meanwhile, when he reached the palace, Caesar told Antony that he didn’t trust Cassius. Antony offered the crown of the Empire three times to Caesar, but each time he turned it down. One of Cassius’ friends, Casca, who was also a conspirator, saw this and came to tell Brutus and Cassius about this incident.
That night, a storm broke over Rome, and people saw many bad omens. They were anxious, for the omens predicted some misfortune falling on Rome. Among his papers, Brutus found letters written by citizens expressing their concern about Caesar’s increasing power and its misuse. But these letters had actually been planted by Cassius to mislead Brutus. Cassius, Casca and their allies visited Brutus at night to persuade him of their views, and they planned Caesar’s death.
Brutus was just an honest man who loved Rome. But Cassius and the others had poisoned his mind against Caesar. Brutus was afraid that Caesar’s tyranny would destroy the strength of the Roman citizens and the empire. Therefore, not realising that the letters were false, he agreed to join the conspirators.
Shortly after this, Cassius and all the other conspirators came to Brutus’ house. They were planning Caesar’s assassination. Cassius wanted to kill Antony also because he was loyal to Caesar. But Brutus didn’t agree. Brutus was deep in thought after the others had left.
The next morning was the fifteenth of March. Calpurnia, Caesar’s wife, pleaded him not to go to the Senate as she had seen bad omens in her nightmare. “Your statue was bathed in blood and many smiling men washed their hands in it,” she said. Caesar refused to be frightened by omens and dreams. Decius, also a conspirator, convinced Caesar that she had misinterpreted the dream.
Some of the conspirators escorted Caesar to the Senate. They wanted to ensure that he would be there on time for their wicked plan to succeed. The soothsayer again tried to reach him but could not. Someone knowing the danger, gave Caesar a warning letter. But Caesar refused to read it saying that thinking about his own safety was unimportant.
The treacherous men surrounded him inside the Senate and each of them stabbed him. Caesar didn’t expect loyalty from any of them, except from Brutus whom he loved and trusted. He fought them off, but stopped, completely shocked and hurt, when he was stabbed by Brutus! “You too, Brutus?” Caesar exclaimed as he fell.
Antony, who was loyal to Caesar, was led away. He was upset about the assassination of Caesar. But he was surrounded by the conspirators and had to pretend to be loyal to Brutus. He asked for permission to speak at Caesar’s funeral, for it was the custom to do so. Brutus was going to explain to the Roman citizens why it was necessary to kill Caesar.
Cassius was suspicious about Antony, but Brutus said that he would convince the Roman citizens because he would speak first. Brutus told the citizens that he loved Caesar. “But I love Rome more,” he said at the funeral. “Caesar’s ambition was dangerous to the freedom of the Roman citizens,” he explained, “To save your freedom, he had to be killed.” The crowd accepted Brutus’ explanation.
When it was Antony’s turn to speak, he laid out Caesar’s body and said that Brutus had killed Caesar for very right reasons. He praised Brutus sarcastically for the killing, saying that Brutus was ‘an honourable man’! He asked the people of Rome, “How can you think Caesar was ambitious, when he had refused the crown three times? Hadn’t Caesar brought glory to Rome through his conquests?”
Antony displayed Caesar’s injured body, creating great shock and pity among the people. Condemning the conspirators, he read out Caesar’s will, by which he had left his entire wealth to the people of Rome. The crowd, easily swayed, turned furiously on the conspirators.
The conspirators got worried to see the crowd getting angry. They also realised that they had to face the Roman army. So, they managed to escape from the mob. On the other hand, Antony and another general, Lepidus, had rallied around Octavius, Caesar’s adopted son, to punish the men who killed Caesar. Octavius,
along with Antony and Lepidus, led an army against the conspirators.
When their defeat was certain, Cassius and Brutus died by their own hands. Antony, when he spoke at Brutus’ funeral, paid him a heartfelt tribute because, unlike the other conspirators, Brutus had acted in the interests of Rome. “Here lies the noblest Roman of them all,” he said of Brutus!
