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The assassination of Julius Caesar was the result of a conspiracy done with many Roman Senators who also happened to be members of the Roman branch of the Hidden Ones. They stabbed Julius Caesar to death in the Curia within the Theatre of Pompey on 15 March, 44 BCE.
Before his assassination, Caesar was the dictator of the Roman Republic, having recently been declared dictator perpetuo by the Senate. This declaration made several Senators fear that Caesar wanted to overthrow the Senate in favor of tyranny. The conspirators were unable to restore the Roman Republic, and the ramifications of the assassination led to the Liberators' civil war and ultimately to the Principate period of the Roman Empire.
Meanwhile, the Order of the Ancients had also secretly supported Caesar. This attracted the attention of several Hidden Ones, most notably Aya, Marcus Junius Brutus, and Gaius Cassius Longinus. Together, they covertly recruited many senators, at least 40 of which were Hidden Ones who chose to eliminate Caesar for the good of the people.
The Assassination[]
Plotting the Assassination[]
In 44 BCE, after Caesar had declared himself dictator-for-life, many senators began to fear Caesar's growing power following his appointment.[3] The Hidden Ones met in a vault hidden beneath a Temple of Juno, in the heart of the city. Cassius tasked Brutus with creating the plan for the assassination, and each time the Assassins met in the temple, the conspiracy took shape.[4]
Brutus ultimately chose to attack Caesar when he entered the Senate on the Ides of March, a date that had been presented to Brutus through the strange visions he received while in the temple. In the Senate, Caesar would be alone, without the help of the inner circle and vulnerable to attack. The Hidden Ones chose to act as a group, ensuring that each of the conspirators was devoted to the task.[4] They recruited at least[1] 40 Senators[2] and called themselves the Liberatores.
Defeating Septimius and assassinating Caesar[]
That day, Caesar's wife attempted to convince him not to attend the Senate, delaying his arrival and leading the Assassins to fear that the plot had been found out.[5] Brutus persisted nevertheless, waiting for Caesar at the Senate for Caesar's eventual arrival. Lucius Septimius stated to Julius Caesar that the Roman people loved him and saw him as their God. Caesar expressed his doubts that the Senate would not be convinced to join him so easily, to which Septimius issues him that they just might. Aya, who had sailed from Egypt across the Tyrrhenian Sea to lead the mission, instructed Brutus and Longinus to await for her signal to kill Caesar before engaging Lucius Septimius in battle. The two fought fiercely and Septimius was slain by Aya.[6]
When Aya snuck into the Senate, she stabbed Caesar from behind, giving the signal for the other conspirators to attack him. Although Caesar resisted at first, he soon recognized his former friend and colleague Brutus amongst the crowd and feeling betrayed and heartbroken, resigned himself to his fate, with Brutus delivering the final killing blow. Caesar was stabbed twenty-three times by the Hidden Ones and died on the Senate floor as the attackers left the building.[6]
Aftermath[]
After the assassination, the Senate passed an amnesty on Caesar's assassins, which was proposed by Caesar's friend and co-consul Marcus Antonius. Nonetheless, uproar among the population forced Brutus and Cassius to flee the city, and the republic soon erupted into a series of civil wars. Eventually, armies under the command of Caesar's allies clashed with those of Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Philippi in Macedonia. Faced with certain defeat, the two Assassins fled once more and committed suicide. In the following years, Caesar's grandnephew Augustus took the throne and founded the Roman Empire in 27 BCE.[4]
Behind the scenes[]
In the 2010 video game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the protagonist Ezio Auditore can find Scrolls of Romulus, papers that served as part of Marcus Junius Brutus' incomplete journal. In the second scroll, Brutus records his thoughts in the leadup to Caesar's murder and says that the assembled conspirators including himself number exactly 40 individuals,[2] which is in accordance with historical documentation tallying the perpetrators upwards of 60 men.[1]
In the French version of Assassin's Creed: Origins, Caesar's last words are the famous sentence "Tu quoque, mi fili?", even though the original version of the game omits the Latin version of the phrase altogether in place of the English translation.
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (first mentioned)
- Assassin's Creed: Origins (first appearance)
- The Hidden Ones (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Origins comic
- Echoes of History (mentioned only)
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Assassination of Julius Caesar on Wikipedia
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Scrolls of Romulus: II of VI
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Scrolls of Romulus: III of VI
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Origins comic – Issue #1
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Assassin's Creed: Origins – Fall of an Empire, Rise of Another
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