The Impact of Julius Caesar’s Assassination
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The motive behind the ideas of March was to take advantage of the fact that Rome was not as united as it was. It was to spread fear and imply a sense of unrest among citizens so they could take advantage of the opportunity that presented itself when Caesar’s assassination occurred. However, the idea didn’t work because Mark Antony, one of Caesar’s assassins, had to convince people that a new civil war wasn’t necessary for justice for Caesar by proving he was no longer alive and would not come back in person. Brutus, Cassius and the rest of the assassins who stabbed Julius Caesar to death ultimately failed themselves and could not capitalize on the assassination (Sheldon, 2018). The process of Julius Caesar’s assassination had the opposite impact of what his assassins had hoped for.
One motive behind the ideas of March was to get rid of Caeser because he was “tyrannical”, which is an overbearing and oppressive ruler. Some people were against these oppressive rulers in power, so they were looking for opportunities to take advantage by finding a way to defeat them. The first step was mainly because Rome wasn’t as united as it was, which eventually led him to be assassinated. This took place because there were two different classes: the populares and optimates class. The former class were the people ruled by Caesar and believed in him. The latter class were the people that didn’t believe in Caesar and felt like he was a threat to their way of living. The optimates also believed that if Caesar stepped down as a leader, then he would take away all of his power from Rome, which was one of the reasons why they wanted to get rid of him and have him killed so that they could take over his power (Sheldon, 2018).
Caesar’s assassination created a big problem because there were now two different parties trying to take control of Rome, and they kept fighting among themselves. Mark Antony, one of Caesar’s assassins, had to convince the people that it wasn’t necessary for another civil war (another battle between the two people in charge) to happen for justice for Caesar by proving that he was no longer alive and will not come back in the flesh. He wanted to do this because he wanted people to look at him as a great leader and someone who showed his honour after his death by displaying his body for his funeral services.
Antony didn’t have to do this for people to believe that Caesar was gone; it was mainly because he wanted to gain the support of the people and be in charge. He tried to take advantage of Rome’s the fact that it wasn’t as united as it was and take authority over him by spreading fear among citizens to tell them that if they didn’t follow his command, they would die. This would make it easier for him to unite people under his command by telling them that he was trying to keep order in Rome and ensure they were safe and protected. He was even able to convince Brutus, who killed Caeser, to join his side because he made better promises than Octavian, Caesar’s nephew (Morstein-Marx, 2021). The promise he made to Brutus was a promise of a greater Rome and more honour. Trebonius was also part of the group of people that helped out Mark Antony after his assassination by killing Cassius, Caesar’s second-in-command and a republican who believed that Caesar should not be killed. They should be focused on uniting Rome instead.
One of the three assassins who killed Julius Caesar, Brutus made the worst choice in betraying Cassius and showing his betrayal towards him. The two were close friends, but when Antony joined forces with Brutus, he decided to kill his friend because he didn’t want him as an ally anymore. This wasn’t the only time that Brutus made a wrong choice; he also made a bad choice regarding his ideas of March. One of the reasons why Brutus failed in his plans after the assassination was because he didn’t do as much research as he should’ve into how people would react to his ideas of March. Brutus expected more people to join up with him and serve him, but this wasn’t the case. This is because some of them were either scared or felt no reason to join up with him since they didn’t know what kind of future they had in store for them if they joined up with Brutus (Pag, 2021). The way Trebonius betrayed Brutus impacted his decision on how to deal with this betrayal. Brutus’ decision to betray Cassius, Caesar’s second-in-command, has more to do with him becoming a power-hungry person after he failed in the past.
When Cassius and Brutus were friends, they had the same goals, and they wanted Rome to be more unified under their control. After all, when you have only two people working together, hardly anyone can take over their power because they have been able to gain this much attention from the public. Cassius thought this would happen, but he was wrong when it came to his idea of March. Brutus betrayed his friend Cassius because he didn’t have the guts to stand up for him. He was afraid that if Cassius stood up to Antony, he would lose his power. Brutus stabbed him in the back with a dagger because he wanted him to be in control of Rome and become the ruler of Rome instead (Dewar, 2021).
We can see how Brutus failed by making bad decisions and showing his betrayal towards one of their best friends, Cassius, who also made a big mistake when it came to betraying Trebonius. Now Brutus has very little power, and he is starving for power so he can get what it takes to remain in control. This is why the idea of March failed because the people were not willing to accept Caesar’s death, and it was hard for him from trying to make their ideas become a reality.
We can also see how Mark Antony made some questionable decisions when it came to his ideas of March. For example, when he declared his name Julius Caesar Augustus, which also means: great reaper or one that is able to reap death, like what Julius Caesar did by getting rid of his enemies by using his powers as a ruler. It is also essential to notice that Antony didn’t change his name when he became Caesar’s heir. This means he was trying to make it seem like Caesar had another meaning to his name, which we can see how would be an essential part of the title since it would show them with the same purpose. Mark Antony also changed how Julius Caesar wanted him to be seen by having himself in a new image by symbolizing a man on horseback and putting those symbols on top of his coins (Pag, 2021).
Antony was able to change the way Caesar was being seen because he was able to gain recognition as he became the emperor, which is why people acted like they knew who he was and showed how their allegiance was towards him. We can see how this would be an essential part of his title because it would show that they were all working together to pull the same image but showing them all with a different meaning behind their name. Mark Antony used Caesar’s funeral service to make himself look suitable for the people and for them to think he was responsible for keeping order in Rome (Strauss, 2022).
In conclusion, Caesar was able to have his ideas of March come up, but there wasn’t the way that Rome wanted this to work, which was why they weren’t able to bring out any results from it. This is why Caesar was given a funeral service for the people in Rome and for them all to think that he was a man who had wonderful ideals and who did good things. Mark Antony made a lot of questionable decisions by showing his power and how he was a great ruler. Mark Antony’s actions showed that there were people who still believed in their ideas, which makes them loyal in a way towards their ideas of March Antony and Brutus both betrayed Cassius. Antony changed the way the people saw Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar made his ideas of March come true. Mark Antony changed how Julius Caesar was seen after his death (Strauss, 2022). People did not like how Julius Caesar made changes to their way of life, and this is why they decided to kill him and make changes to their lives, which ended up being for the worse.
References
Dewar, M. (2021). Author and Authority, Caesar and Liberty. Reading Lucan’s Civil War: A Critical Guide, 62, 158.
Morstein-Marx, R. (2021). Julius Caesar and the Roman People. Cambridge University Press.
Pag, V. E. (2021). Part Two. Successful Conspiracies. In Conspiracy Narratives in Roman History (pp. 91-122). University of Texas Press.
Sheldon, R. M. (2018). Kill Caesar! Assassination in the Early Roman Empire. Rowman & Littlefield.
Strauss, B. (2022). The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium. Simon and Schuster.
