The assassination of Julius Caesar is considered by many to be a pivotal moment for Rome. If asked the question, “would you have stabbed Caesar?”, I would say “no, because it would have accomplished nothing.” The Roman Republic was in turmoil, political violence was commonplace, and the citizens and subjects had become tired of living in a state of constant chaos. Caesar was an elite, but still a man who rose to power through his ambition and drive. He was however not a champion of restoring the republic to its old traditions, but sought power and influence for himself.

Rome had long departed from its tradition of simplicity and embraced the trappings of luxury, and Caesar used his family’s vast wealth to his advantage by buying the support of the people. He was not the only individual to do so, but was certainly the most prominent to benefit from the practice. He had a difficult life, with his father’s death at 16, his life threatened by political enemies of his family, and having even been captured by pirates. Despite all this he overcame these challenges which likely raised public support of him.

His military conquests and achievements in Britannia and Gaul, and his diplomatic ability with foreign powers such as Egypt found him as the most powerful and influential man in Rome, much to the chagrin of his political colleagues. The senate of Rome had long since become a hub of factionalism and violence, with mobs provoked by politicians every so often plying the streets of Rome for political targets. There were countless civil wars over the prior century between influential Romans, with Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar’s struggle just being another one.

The triumvirate was never going to fix the systemic problems in Rome’s government, and the republic was poised for collapse. So when Julius Caesar, the most popular man in Rome, and just recently promoted to ‘dictator for life’, was stabbed and killed in the Senate, its fair to see this as an exclamation mark rather than a period to the statement: “Thus through violence the empire was born!”