The Assassination of Julius Caesar - Did He Deserve to Die?

Most men in history need an introduction. He did this, she did that, he discovered this land...etc. But a few, don't. Alexander the Great. Queen Elizabeth. Charles Darwin. Emperor Justinian...

...Julius Caesar. 

Arguably, one of the three greatest generals in history, Caesar added much of Western Europe to the Roman Republic and set the stage for the transition to Empire. Much of what we call the "Western world" today was his creation. From Britain to France to Germany...he brought them out of the Stone Age and put them on the path to future greatness and civilization. 

But instead of becoming a long-term ruler, he was assassinated by his own Senators on the Senate floor. How did it end like that? Did he deserve it? Surely, the great general who secured so much land for the Republic deserved better?

It all began in Egypt. After his famous conquests, Caesar was dispatched to Alexandria to deal with the internal squabble playing out between two would-be Pharaohs...Cleopatra and her brother. Both were young and being led astray by powerful individuals behind them. Egypt was at the time Rome's ally and dependency, and as such, their internal issues were for Rome to settle. Rome was certainly interested in a stable Egypt. Egypt supplied Rome with much of her food and was a stable front from which to operate in the greater Middle East and Asia Minor. The prevailing Greek culture of Northern Egypt and in the power centre of Alexandria made it that much simpler for the Romans to do business with the Ptolemies and their domain. Caesar quickly resolved the situation and Cleopatra became queen and promised Rome her support. However, they both soon fell in love and married. This did not sit well with the Roman Senate. Caesar already had a wife in Italy and many feared Cleopatra's true intentions.

At the time, Caesar was not the only leader of Rome. Power was shared between him, Mark Antony and Lepidus. However, Caesar's self-importance and claim to fame, aided in some part by Cleopatra's own ambitions and drive, led him to declare himself "sole dictator of Rome". This angered the Republicans greatly as Rome's history is built on hate for "kings". Only the Senate and its appointed Consuls could rule jointly, with the People as their true masters. But both Mark Antony and Caesar continued to buy support for the dictatorship and finally Caesar became Dictator of Rome. Although it was meant to be in title only, the fact that Caesar's son Caesarion, borne by Cleopatra, was named heir to the "throne" and would thus be an half-Egyptian ruler controlled by her mother, a foreign queen from the East was too much for many to bear. Plans were set in motion and Caesar was famously assassinated by a group of Senators in the Senate in cold blood. The deed was done. Caesar was dead and Rome no longer had a dictator and Cleopatra lost her direct link to the Roman future she desired for her son and Egypt. I won't touch on what happened next in this post. But I beg the question: did Caesar deserve to be killed?

My opinion: yes. Now, I say that as someone who holds him as his number one idol. But I believe he went too far and had begun to put the future of Rome, her empire and indeed, the future of the West itself at risk. It is indeed true that he was perhaps the greatest general in Roman history and indeed, history itself. He enlarged Roman possessions and maintained Roman control over the East but Cleopatra's influence and his own ego were about to hand over most of the Roman world into the hands of an Eastern leader. Who is to say what would have happened next? The capital moved to Alexandria? Egyptian rule over Asia Minor in return for wheat? Roman military matters influenced by the needs of kingdoms in Greece and Egypt? And most importantly, this would have never allowed Augustus to create the Roman Empire and set the stage for the Pax Romana and the world as we know it! (more about all that in another post soon). So yes, Caesar deserved to die. Even though Mark Antony and Octavian hunted down the assassins and destroyed them at the Battle of Phillipi and even though their names have been forever made infamous in history (Et tu, Brutus?), they did history and the Western world and indeed the future Empire a patriotic favour by eliminating the dictator and in essence, the foreign queen who was controlling him. I will always be a fan of Julius Caesar, but in the end he was a threat to Rome and had to be eliminated.