The Death of Caesar: The Story of History’s Most Famous Assassination

In this story of the most famous assassination in history, “the last bloody day of the [Roman] Republic has never been painted so brilliantly”--Wall Street Journal). Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman Senate on 3/15/44 BC—the Ides of March according to the Roman calendar. He was the last casualty of one civil war, the first casualty of the next, which would end the Roman Republic, inaugurating the Empire. “The Death of Caesar provides a fresh look at a well-trodden event, with superb storytelling sure to inspire awe”--The Philadelphia Inquirer. Why was Caesar killed? For political reasons, mainly. The conspirators wanted to return Rome to the days when the Senate ruled, but Caesar hoped to pass along his new powers to his family, especially Octavian. The principal plotters were Brutus, Cassius (former allies of Pompey) & Decimus. The last was a leading general & close friend of Caesar’s who felt betrayed. He was the mole in Caesar’s camp. After the assassination everything went wrong. The killers left the body in the Senate & Caesar’s allies held a public funeral. Mark Antony made a brilliant speech—not “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” as Shakespeare had it, but something inflammatory that caused a riot. The conspirators fled Rome. Brutus & Cassius raised an army in Greece. Antony & Octavian defeated them. An original, new perspective on an event that seems well known, The Death of Caesar is “one of the most riveting hour-by-hour accounts of Caesar’s final day I have read....An absolutely marvelous read”--The Times, London