Caesar murderer

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The members of a conspiracy by Roman senators in 44 BC are called Caesar murderers . Chr. Against the dictator for life Julius Caesar .

Denarius of Marcus Junius Brutus, lapel with daggers and the inscription 'EID MAR'

The Conspiracy

The sole rule of Caesar and his followers' considerations for the reintroduction of the monarchy met at the beginning of 44 BC. In the Roman Senate to the resistance of a group of republican -minded senators who, under the leadership of Gaius Cassius Longinus, finally formed a conspiracy to assassinate the dictator. Under the leadership of Gaius Cassius and Marcus Junius Brutus , the conspirators carried out their plan on the Ides of March (March 15) 44 BC. By murdering Caesar with 23 dagger stabs during a senate session in the theater of Pompey .

A total of around 50 to 60 people were privy to the conspiracy and had only vague plans for the time after the attack. Under the immediate impression of the murder, the Senate initially granted the conspirators amnesty, but after a short time public opinion in Rome turned against the murderers, so that Caesar's followers gained the upper hand. The Caesar murderers were then ostracized by Caesar's adoptive son Octavian and the consul Mark Antony through the lex Pedia and executed one after the other in a merciless campaign of revenge.

The "retribution" of the Caesarians

Among the first victims were Caesar's former legates Decimus Junius Brutus and Gaius Trebonius . Decimus Brutus was born after the Battle of Mutina in 43 BC. Slain by the Gauls Capenus with the tolerance of Antony . Trebonius met the consular Publius Cornelius Dolabella in Smyrna on the way to his province of Syria , and when he tried to prevent him from entering the city, he was captured, tortured and murdered by him.

After the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC. Some Caesar murderers committed suicide, in particular Gaius Cassius and Marcus Brutus, or were killed by other unfortunate circumstances. A few were able to escape to Sextus Pompeius in Sicily for a while , including Lucius Staius Murcus , Lucius Antistius Labeo, Decimus Turullius and Gaius Cassius Parmensis . Murcus was born in 39 BC. Murdered in Syracuse on the instructions of Pompey , possibly to vote Antony and Octavian favorable during the Misenum conference. While all the others proscribed by the triumvirs in the lex Pedia were rehabilitated in the Treaty of Misenum at the urging of Pompey and were allowed to return to Rome, the Caesar murderers were expressly excluded from this provision. As the last remaining Caesar murderer, Cassius Parmensis was killed in Athens after the Battle of Actium .

List of Caesar killers

This list gives an overview of the senators involved in the conspiracy.

Unsure:

Confidante:

Falsely accused:

literature

Scientific literature

  • Josiah Osgood: Caesar's Legacy. Civil War and the Emergence of the Roman Empire. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2006, ISBN 0-521-85582-9 .
  • Bruno Schor: Contributions to the history of Sextus Pompeius (= University Collection Philosophy. History. 1). Hochschulverlag, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-8107-2015-1 (also: Munich, University, dissertation, 1977).
  • Ronald Syme : The Roman Revolution. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1939, (classic study).

Newer fiction