Assassination: Gaius Julius Caesar

Essay by BeldenA+, February 1997

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Assassination: Gaius Julius Caesar

Caius Julius Caesar, a Roman consul, was a great leader and a terrible dictator.

Many of his reforms were excellent, but he also was hungry for the power of Roman Dictator, which would give him absolute power for as long as he required it. Throughout his life he did many things including creating the calendar that we know today, advancing mathematics, and many other scholarly things. When he became dictator in 44 B.C., those in power knew he must be stopped, and so he was assassinated.

Caesar was born in 100 B.C., sometime in July. Around the age of 22, unable to gain a political position in the Forum, he went to Rhodes to study rhetoric. There he became a priest and scholar. During the Next 20-30 years, Caesar became a triumvir (consisting of Crassus, Pompey, and Caesar), governor, and finally sole dictator of Rome.

In 48 B.C.

the Roman Senate gave Caesar the power of dictator for one year. During this time he defeated Pompey. In 45 B.C. the Senate made him consul for ten years, but in 44 B.C. after winning his final victory and pacifying the Roman world, Caesar decided to became dictator for life. This prompted Gaius Cassius and Marcus Junius Brutus to plot an assassination to preserve the Roman Republic. On March 15, 44 B.C. Julius Caesar was killed in the Senate house.

The reason behind the assassination of Gauis Julius Caesar was very clear. He just had too much power. Cassius and Brutus knew that if Caesar became the dictator he would destroy the Roman republic. Caesar knew that by becoming the dictator he would have those who did not like him, so he inacted the Sanctity of the Tribunes, which enabled him to be unharmed without dire consequences. When...