ConflictEurope

Caesar assassinated

Oct 46 BCE

Senators kill an autocrat and get an empire

In depth

Caesar had broken a fundamental rule by leading his army across the Rubicon into Italy — a general who would not lay down his command. The assassination solved nothing, because the problem was not Caesar but that the Republic's institutions were built for a city-state and now governed a Mediterranean empire. His name became a title: Kaiser, Tsar, Emperor.

For children

Julius Caesar had gathered all power to himself. On the fifteenth of March 44 BCE a group of senators killed him in the senate to save the Republic. The result was the opposite: after thirteen years of civil war, Rome became an empire.

Connects to

The Roman Republic510 BCE – 28 BCE
The Roman Empire28 BCE
Cleopatra and the fall of Egypt31 BCE
The Celts in Europe801 BCE – 51 BCE

Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org