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- History of Rome 753 B.C. - 476 A.D.
- The Tiber and its bridges
- The swiss guards
- A Pyramid in Rome
- The protestant cemetery of Rome
- The Police in Rome
- The bridges of Rome
- Squares of Rome
- Rome’s Birthday
- EMPEROR NERO: hero or zero?
- Fascist Architecture of Rome
- Frascati
- The talking Statues of Rome
- The Murder of Julius Ceasar
- Raphael in Rome
The Murder of Julius Ceasar
March 15, 44 BC. The most infamous date in the history of Rome. It was on this day, called Idus March in Latin, that the most famous ancient Roman, Julius Cæsar, met his untimely end on the steps of the Curia Pompei, or the Senate House of the Theatre of Pompey. Cæsar would suffer twenty-three stab wounds in all, but, as the coroner would confirm later, the fatal wound was the second, dealt by his adopted son, Brutus. “Quoque tu Brute, fili mi?”
THE SCENE OF THE CRIME
Unfortunately for archæologists and history buffs, the scene of the crime is difficult to visualize today, as the ruins of the Senate House are mostly hidden under the modern street Via di Torre Argentina. However, if you stand along the railing of the northern side of the Area Sacra of Largo Argentina, you can look down into the excavation and see some blocks of tufa that belong to the Curia Pompei. It was here that the likes of Cassius and Brutus had lured Cæsar that fateful spring morning by promising to grant him the title “Emperor of Rome.” Eager for more power, Cæsar ignored the warning of the soothsayer, who told him to “Beware the Ides of March,” and headed for the Senate around 10 a.m. As Shakespeare tells it, Cæsar met the soothsayer on his way to the Curia and gloated “The Ides of March have come,” to which the soothsayer responded ominously, “Yes, Cæsar, but not gone.”
FRIENDS ROMANS COUNTRYMEN
While little of the Senate building is left to evoke the drama of the assassination, the site of Mark Antony’s famous funeral oration in the Roman Forum is much more recognizable. Check your guidebook or ask your tour guide to point out the Imperial Rostra, or speechmaking platform, where, if Shakespeare is a reliable source, Antony told his friends, Romans, and countrymen to lend him their ears. The altar where Cæsar’s corpse was cremated is still intact in the podium of the Temple of Divius Julius (also in the Roman Forum), beneath a low-pitched metal roof. Every day fresh flowers are placed here to honor the memory of a dictator who was killed in this city 2045 years ago.