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Caesar's assassination - The right version? Who knows?


Caesar CXXXVII

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Saw , just now , chapter 12 , damn !

This is the c. 10th-20th televisionic/cinematic version for caesar's assassination since 1900 or so and everytime it is a different one . The sources (Plutarchus , Dio Cassius and more) differs also about it .

 

HBO's ROME managed to show us important things like the "removal" of Antonius from the scene , Casac's hand on caesar shoulder , Caesar response , Brutus unwillingless etc' but they ignored the fact that Caesar knew about the conspiracy , that the conspirators were in haste to kill him before his intented departure for the east , that the senators , including the murderers , run from the Senate house etc' .

 

What do modern scholarls have to say about the whole (historic , and maybe televisionic) scene and the complex relatiomship between Caesar and Brutus ? (my bad English)

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HBO's ROME managed to show us important things like the "removal" of Antonius from the scene , Casac's hand on caesar shoulder , Caesar response , Brutus unwillingless etc' but they ignored the fact that Caesar knew about the conspiracy , that the conspirators were in haste to kill him before his intented departure for the east , that the senators , including the murderers , run from the Senate house etc' .

 

Whether Caesar knew about the conspiracy itself--rather than just a vague threat--is not settled fact. Caesar certainly knew how much he was hated, remarking "Can I doubt but that I am profoundly hated, when a Cicero sits and cannot meet me at his ease? But if anyone is easy, he is the man. Still, I have no doubt but that he hates me bitterly." And he hinted at expecting someone to murder him, remarking at Lepidus' dinner party shortly before the Liberation, "Better to die once for all than always to expect."

 

Nor is it established fact whether the assassins ran from the Theatre of Pompey (not the Senate house) immediately afterwards. According to sources, the Liberators spent some time after disposing of Caesar to announce "Sic semper tyrannis", to hail Cicero, and to announce their intention to restore the republic. Indeed, how they could do all this on foot is beyond me.

 

BTW, the ancient source who seems most reliable on the details of the tyrannicide was Nicolaus of Damascus, who was the nearest to events.

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