Ceasars' Assassination

Caesar’s assassination took place in the year 44BC. According to the ancient historians Plutarch and Suetonius, there were a range of immediate and long-term impacts of Caesar’s assassination in the years following the event, however the accounts of these two men differ at times in terms of their arguments. Recorded impacts include public confusion, astrological changes, the emergence of Octavian, Caesar inspired actions by Octavian, and the eventual fall of the republic when Octavian becomes the absolute ruler of Rome.

Plutarch believed that Caesar had ‘planned from the outset of his career to overthrow the republic’   to gain absolute power, and that he was most openly and mortally hated due to his passion to be made King. He also writes of times where Caesar insulted the Senate, causing further bitterness towards him. Both Plutarch and Suetonius describe a certain meeting of the senate where Caesar was to be granted a list of honours. He sat in front of the Temple of Mother Venus, and did not rise to greet the senate.   Suetonius says that even the commons had come to disapprove of how things were going, and no longer hid their disgust at Caesar’s tyrannical rule. This shows that both Plutarch and Suetonius agree that Caesar’s actions were causing feelings of resentment by all types of people during the lead up to his assassination.
On the day of the assassination, Plutarch and Suetonius comment on some of the immediate impacts of the event. Plutarch writes that the spectators in the senate meeting who were not in the conspiracy were so ‘horror-struck and amazed’   at what was occurring, that they were ‘afraid to run away and afraid to come to Caesar’s help.’   This implies that the people of the senate did not necessarily want Caesar to be killed and wanted to help, but were not brave enough. He also describes a ‘state of confusion, terror, bewilderment’   among the people of Rome once the news was spread. Suetonius agrees that there was a great sense of...