history meme. five assassinations: Julius Caesar, by Senators of Rome
15 MARCH 44BC. On the Ides of March, Julius Caesar entered the Senate. There he was stabbed to death by around forty senators, members of the ruling class and paragons of education and intellect in the society of Ancient Rome. Only twenty-one names of these conspirators, self-styled as “The Liberators”, survive history and nearly all of them staunchly defended the so-called sancitity of the Republic threatened, allegedly, by the quick rise to tyrannical power of Julius Caesar. However, the death of the “tyrant” had also led to the end of the Republic for which he was killed. Civil war broke out, with Mark Antony on one side and Octavian, Caesar’s legal heir, on the other. Eventually, Mark Antony fled to Egypt, where he would be defeated by Octavian. Octavian became Augustus, the first Emperor and founder of the Roman Empire, and ushered in the era of Pax Romana.
To those who lined up for a view, on shore and along the causeways, Caesar and Cleopatra represented not a romance, but a sort of magical apparition from another world, the earthly visitation of two living gods.
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Cleopatra, A Life - Stacy Schiff |
“They’ve made me as tall as you,” he said proudly.
“Well, you almost are. You are tall, like your father.” And he had kept the resemblance, with the same broad face and keen, deep-set eyes.
“My father,” he said quietly. “It makes me sad that I can never see him.”
“Yes, it makes me sad too.”
The Memoirs of Cleopatra - Margaret George
“If you conquered the entire world, it is not too late to found a dynasty.” I said.
“Rome does not have monarchs.”
“I said the entire world, not just Rome. Egypt joined with Rome is no longer Rome. And this new creation would need a new dynasty.”
He jerked his head up and looked at me as if I were dangling something dangerous in front of him. A forbidden golden object. A sealed will. an enormous bribe. His eyes narrowed, but not before I had caught the quick leap of curiosity and desire there. “What are you saying?”
“I am saying simply that - if you have an empire to bequeath, then we shall have the child to bequeath it to
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| — | The Memoirs of Cleopatra - Margaret George |
Aurelia Cotta, the mother of Gaius Julius Caesar.
Contrary to the popular rumour, she did not deliver her son via Caesarean Section, as there is not a recorded instance of a mother surviving one until 1500. She lived well into her sixties, running her son’s household and helping to raise her granddaughter after the death of Caesar’s first wife in childbirth.
