Julius Caesar’s Forgotten Assassin

[TomSea]

MAR 15, 2018
Julius Caesar’s Forgotten Assassin
William Shakespeare might have given Marcus Junius Brutus all the credit, but Caesar's true betrayer was a much closer friend.
BARRY STRAUSS

On March 15, 44 B.C. a group of Roman senators murdered Julius Caesar as he sat on the podium at a senate meeting. The dictator fell bleeding to his death from 23 stab wounds before the horrified eyes of the rest of the house. It was a little after noon on the Ides of March, as the Romans called the mid-day of the month. The spectators didn’t know it yet but they were witnessing the last hours of the Roman Republic. But who was to blame?

As readers of Shakespeare know, a dying Caesar turned to one of the assassins and condemned him with his last breath. It was Caesar’s friend, Marcus Junius Brutus.

“Et tu, Brute?” – “You too, Brutus?” is what Shakespeare has Caesar say in the Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Except, Caesar never said these words. And Brutus was neither his closest friend nor his biggest betrayer, not by a long shot.

Read more at: https://www.history.com/news/julius-caesar-assassin-ides-of-march