Dimensions
145 x 210 x 22mm
This absorbing recreation of the murder of Julius Caesar two millennia ago by a leading classical historian also offers a short history of political murder.
Gaius Julius Caesar, life dictator of Rome, not quite a king and not yet a god, was murdered on the 15th March - the Ides of March - in 44BC. The killers were a conspiracy of senators that includes the richest and most educated Roman politicians of his day. But soon the leaders of the conspiracy were fleeing for their lives, and Rome plunged back into a decade and a half of bloody civil war.
Why should we care about the Ides of March? In part because Caesar's vast ghost long outlasted the Roman empire, on stage and in fiction, in titles and ceremonies, in opera and popular culture; most recently as the climax of BBC2 series. But most of all because his death is a fulcrum in the history of political murder.
Assassination and autocracy remain indissolubly linked whether it be Tsar Alexander II or JFK, as they will until monarchs and presidents themselves lose power and significance. And western democracies, like Noble Brutus, plot the murder of Third World dictators as a remedy for terrorism. Beware the Ides of March!
The second title in the new Profiles in History series, edited by Mary Beard. This series explores classic moments of world history - those 'ring-a-bell' events that we always know less about than we think!
