Daily Blog 3 Week 8

Konnor Drewen

3/23/011

Do you think Caesar's killers were justified in their actions?

            No, I don’t think that they were justified. Caesar claimed to be a king and that was the principal motive for Caesar's assassination by his political opponents in the Senate. Plutarch records that at one point, Caesar informed the Senate that his honors were more in need of reduction than increase, but withdrew this position so as not to appear ungrateful. Suetonius wrote that Caesar failed to rise in the temple either because he was restrained by Cornelius Balbus, who was a consul, or that he balked at the suggestion he should rise. Suetonius also gives the story that a crowd shouted to him "rex", the Latin word for king. Caesar replied, "I am Caesar, not Rex". Suetonius also gave the account of a crowd assembled to greet Caesar upon his return to Rome. A member of the crowd placed a laurel wreath on the statue of Caesar. Plutarch and Suetonius are similar in their depiction of these events, but Dio, was a Roman consul and a noted historian writing in Greek, combines the stories writing that the tribunes arrested the citizens who placed wreaths on statues of Caesar. None of these things, in my opinion, are reasons for an assassination. He was able to take over a large amount of area from France up through to England. I would think that the people would love him, but he was assassinated by opposing politicians.