The Death of Caesar

Caesar finally left Egypt and came back to Rome. No one could fight against him any more! And the people loved him. So when he came back to Rome, Caesar was made dictator for life.

A dictator can do whatever he wants. And once Caesar was dictator, he took power away from the Senate. Now, only Caesar could declare war, pass laws, and raise taxes. He started to make money with his own picture on it. He paid for gladiator fighting and chariot racing to amuse the people of Rome. Everything seemed to be going his way.

But then Caesar did two things that made many people angry. First, he called the Senate together. “I am the dictator of Rome,” he told them, “but the kings of other countries will respect me more if you call me ‘King Caesar.’ So from now on I want you to call me ‘king.’ Second, I want my nephew Octavian to be king after me. I’m going to adopt him to be my son. I want him to inherit my power too.”

The Senate was horrified. They wanted to choose the next leader of Rome. They didn’t want another Caesar on the throne, and they didn’t want kings of Rome to keep on passing their power on to their sons.

“We have to get rid of Caesar once and for all,” said one senator, named Brutus. He had been a friend of Caesar’s, but now he too was worried about Caesar’s power in Rome. “Tomorrow is the fifteenth of March. We’ll attack him as he enters the Senate and stab him to death!”

Other senators agreed, and the plans were made. Caesar was doomed!

Caesar didn’t know anything about the plot to kill him. But a Roman writer named Suetonius tells us that many strange things happened to Caesar leading up to that day. He went out to visit his favorite herd of horses, and found that the horses weren’t eating. Instead, they were crying. This made Caesar so nervous that he went to the temple, to ask the gods why his horses were so sad.

When he got home, Caesar told his wife all about the strange things that had happened that day. During the night, she had a terrifying dream. She dreamed that she was holding her husband in her arms, and that he had been stabbed to death. She cried out, “Caesar! Caesar!” and woke up. She sat straight up in bed, and the door of their room flew open—all by itself.

When Caesar got up the next morning, his wife pleaded with him, “Don’t go to the Senate today. It’s the fifteenth of March. Stay home where it’s safe.”

“Nonsense!” Caesar said. “Nothing will happen to me.” He dressed and headed for the Senate building. He walked up the smooth marble steps. The sun shone on the white stone, and the sky was blue and peaceful overhead. “How silly of me to be nervous!” he thought. “Nothing will go wrong today!”

He went into the room where the Senate met and sat down in his special chair.

“Caesar,” said one of the senators, “today I want to ask you to bring my brother back to Rome. He was banished several years ago.”

“Let’s talk about that later,” Caesar said, still thinking about his wife’s dream.

The senator leaped to his feet. “Friends!” he shouted, “what are we waiting for!” He ran forward and grabbed Caesar by his purple robe. Brutus and two other senators leaped at him with knives drawn. Caesar fought back, but they stabbed him. He staggered, and fell down at the feet of a statue of Pompey. When he looked up, he could hardly believe that his old friend Brutus had helped plot against him.

“Et tu, Brute?” he gasped. In Latin, this meant, “You, too, Brutus?” And then Caesar died, there on the marble floor of the Senate building. His slaves came and carried his body home. Caesar, the greatest Roman, had been killed by his own friends and countrymen.

Note to Parent: Caesar’s campaigns in Britain took place 55–54 BC/BCE. Cleopatra was born in 69 BC/BCE; she was twenty-one when Caesar arrived in Egypt in 48 BC/BCE (Caesar was fifty-two). Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC/BCE.