By 44 BC, Caesar's power had grown and he
had won even more honors. The Senate declared him dictator for life and he
minted coins with his image that read DICT PERPETUO. It was the first time
an image of a living Roman had been put on a coin.
Not everyone was pleased. Rumors flew
around Rome suggesting that Caesar wanted to be Rome's king. Caesar took
advantage of a public holiday to try and dispel these Rumors.
On February 15, 44 BC, Rome celebrated the
festival of the Lupercalia, a holiday associated with the legend of the She-Wolf
who had saved Romulus and Remus from death at the edge of the Tiber.
Caesar arranged for Marc Antony to publicly offer Caesar a diadem,
symbolizing his kingship. Caesar refused the diadem, announcing to the
people, "Jupiter alone is king of the Romans."
Many were unconvinced. Caesar's
enemies were worried that his power would continue to grow, and they pled with
Marcus Brutus to put an end to Caesar's tyranny. Brutus teamed up with his
brother-in-law Gaius Cassius and some 60 other senators in a plot to kill
Caesar. They knew that they had to do it quickly as Caesar was planning to
leave Rome on a military campaign that would last several years.
The conspirators against Caesar planned to
kill him on March 15, 44 BC - the Ides of March. The Senate was scheduled
to meet in a hall at Pompey's Portico and Theater on that day, and when Caesar
wasn't feeling well and declined to go to the meeting, Brutus went to his house
and convinced him to attend.
When Caesar took his seat in the Senate
meeting, the conspirators crowded around him and one of them begged him for a
favor, tugging at his toga. The tug at Caesar's toga was a signal to
attack. The conspirators stabbed him 23 times; the last to attack him was
Brutus. Shakespeare proposed that as he died Caesar cried, "Et tu, Brute?"
or "You too, Brutus?"
The Senate voted not to punish the
conspirators and Brutus even minted a coin that celebrated the murder.
Above an inscription reading EID MAR, the Ides of March, were two daggers
and the cap of liberty that was born by freed slaves.
