The Young Brutus

• Marcus Junius Brutus Caepio (c.85-42) often referred to as Brutus was a politician of the late Roman Republic, murderer of Gaius Julius Caesar and one of the last defenders of the republic. Father Brutus was killed in 78 by Gnaeus Pompey, a young general who was to become famous. 
• The boy was educated by the half-brother of his mother Servilia, Marcus Porcius Cato, and later adopted by a relative of his mother, Quintus Servilius Caepio.
•  To honor his adoptive father, the young man started to call himself Marcus Junius Brutus Caepio. He is best known in modern times for taking a leading role in the assassination of Julius Caesar.
• Brutus was considered to be a friend of Caesar, who sent him on an important mission to the east, made him governor of Cisalpine Gaul (i.e., the Po plains) in the years 46-45, choose him as praetor for the year 44 and promised him the consulate in 41. No man had received similar, extravagant honors.

~ In February 44, Caesar showed clearly that he would never restore the republic that he had overthrown. He received the senators as a king (not rising from his seat when they entered the room), wanted himself to be crowned (text) and had himself proclaimed dictator for ever. All this was extremely unrepublican, and Brutus decided that he had to act.

~ Some 60 senators conspired to assasinate the dictator, and Brutus, who was close to Caesar, became one of the leaders of the plot. His brother Decimus and his friend Cassius were also involved. It would be easy to kill Caesar, who had disbanded his bodyguard, trusting that nobody would like to run the risk of a new civil war (Sulla had done the same).

~ As he took his seat, the conspirators gathered about him as if to pay their respects, and straightway Tillius Cimber, who had assumed the lead, came nearer as though to ask something. When Caesar with a gesture put him off to another time, Cimber caught his toga by both shoulders. As Caesar cried, 'Why, this is violence!', one of the Cascas [two brothers in the Senate] stabbed him from one side just below the throat. Caesar caught Casca's arm and ran it through with his stylus, but as he tried to leap to his feet, he was stopped by another wound. 


~When he saw that he was beset on every side by drawn daggers, he muffled his head in his robe, and at the same time drew down its lap to his feet with his left hand, in order to fall more decently, with the lower part of his body also covered. And in this wise he was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering not a word, but merely a groan at the first stroke, though some have written that when Marcus Brutus rushed at him, he said in Greek, 'You too, my child?'

~ Brutus is invariably connected to the sudden changes which brought to an end the Roman royal era - the banishment of the kings and the creation of one of the earliest republican institutions. The new form of government was so successful in governing that even the Caesars of later Rome, when the republic fell into decline, could not entirely separate themselves from it. 


~ Monarchy continued to be deeply unpopular in Rome and its people believed that only barbarians could still accept the concept of kingship. All these facts explain why the emperors felt the need to hide their royal status behind republican titles and forms. - One can go as far as saying that the empire created by Caesar and Augustus was a republic led by a monarch.

~ It was claimed that the name Brutus had been an old Italic term meaning "rebel slave". That could explain the name Brutium which was given to the southern extremity of Italy, which served as a refuge to fugitive slaves.

Marc Antony, the Roman Politician & General

Born: c. 83 B.C.E. 
Rome (now in Italy) 
Died: 30 B.C.E. 
Alexandria, Egypt 
Roman politician and general

Cleopatra's ill-fated lover

Latin name: Marcus Antonius

• The Roman politician and general Mark Antony was the chief rival of another prominent Roman politician, Octavian (63 B.C.E. –14 C. E.), seeking leadership of the Roman Empire. 
• Both men desired to assume power after the assassination (political murder) of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.E. The man who came out on top of this struggle would go on to become perhaps the most powerful figure in the world at that time.
• Mark Antony came from a distinguished Roman family. His grandfather had been one of Rome's leading public speakers, and his father, Marcus Antonius Creticus, had died in a military expedition against pirates when Antony was young.

Career with Caesar

• Antony received his first overseas experience in the eastern portion of the Roman Empire, when, during 57 to 55 B.C.E. , he served with the Roman governor of Syria, which was a province (territory) of Rome. 
• From there he went to serve with Caesar (100–44 B.C.E. ) in Gaul (a region of Europe that included what is now modern-day France, as well as parts of modern-day Germany, Belgium, and Italy). 
• Caesar conquered Gaul for Rome, and Antony assisted him in suppressing local rebellion against the Romans. 
• In 50 B.C.E. , after returning to Rome, Antony was elected a tribune, an office that represented the people's interests. 
• Tribunes were expected to stand up for the rights of individuals and for those who were not members of the highest classes of Roman society. 
• By contrast, the Senate, Rome's primary governing and advisory body, was composed primarily of members from a small hereditary aristocracy (political upper class).

• Antony came into the office at a critical time. Caesar's command in Gaul was coming to an end, and a group in the Senate was set on bringing Caesar to trial for what they saw as his misuse of his power. 
• Caesar depended upon the tribunes to look after his interests in Rome, and Antony did so when he vetoed a decree that required Caesar and the men he commanded to lay down their arms. 
• However, when the Senate gave its officers special powers to "preserve the state," Antony felt that the measure would be used against him and he fled to Caesar. 
• By doing so, he gave Caesar the opportunity to assert his power, because he could claim he was defending the people's representatives—the tribunes—against the power of the Senate.

• Antony was a daring general in the army of Julius Caesar who rose to become one of Caesar's closest colleagues. 
• After Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C., Antony jumped into the struggle for control of Rome. (At the funeral of Caesar he spoke out strongly against the assassins; William Shakespeare later dramatized this moment in the play Julius Caesar, with the famous oration beginning "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.") Antony joined forces with Caesar's adopted heir Octavian to purge Rome of their common enemies. 
• They formed the so-called Second Triumvirate with general Marcus Lepidus and divided the empire, with Antony being given control of Egypt. 
• There he met and became the lover of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Their meeting, with Cleopatra dressed as the love goddess Venus and arriving on a lavishly decorated barge, is a famous story recorded by Plutarch and others. 
• Antony and Cleopatra joined forces and the triumvirate dissolved. At the battle of Actium in 31 B.C. the naval forces of Antony and Cleopatra were routed by those of Octavian. (Cleopatra fled the scene while the battle was still underway, and Antony followed; their departure is often regarded as one of naval history's great blunders.) 
• A year later, with Octavian's forces nearing Alexandria, Antony committed suicide by falling on his sword. Cleopatra followed suit (allegedly killing herself with the self-inflicted bite of a poisonous snake) and Octavian was left in final control of Egypt and Rome.
•  Antony's life and tragic end was immortalized by Shakespeare in his play Antony and Cleopatra.

Julius Caesar - The Most Famous Roman of All

 "General, Statesman, Dictator - the most famous Roman of them all" 


Name commonly known as: Julius Caesar, Dictator of Rome during the era of the Republic


What was the Republic? Definition: The Roman republic was the form of government maintained by Rome whose authority was based on popular consent and governed by popular representation and control.


Latin Roman Name: Gaius Julius Caesar

Position of Consul: 49 BC–March 15, 44 BC


Dynasty / Historical Period: The Royal House Julio-Claudian during the Roman Republic


Place and Date of Birth: Rome, 12 July 100 BC or 102 BC

Name of Father: Gaius Julius Caesar


Name of Mother: Aurelia Cotta


Married: Cornelia Cinna minor 84 BC–68 BC


              Pompeia 68 BC–63 BC


              Calpurnia Pisonis 59 BC–44 BC


Cleopatra:  Julius was the lover of Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt, but they were never married as this was forbidden by Roman Law. In Ancient Rome a marriage was only recognised between two Roman citizens


Why was Julius Caesar famous? Accomplishments, achievements and important events: He conquered Gaul (modern France and Belgium - 58-50 BC). The reforms of Caesar stabilized the Mediterranean world. Julius Caesar was dictator for ten years and consul for five, and was also imperator or commander of an army he was not made to disband, so that he nearly was as powerful as any king


Julius Caesar was a general, a statesman, a lawgiver, a jurist, an orator, a poet, a historian, a philologer, a mathematician, and an architect.


Place and Date of Death: Died 15 March 44 BC on the Ides of March (aged 56). The place of death was Rome during the period of the Roman Republic


Name of successor:  The successor to Julius Caesar was eventually Augustus Caesar who became the first Emperor of Rome


Interesting facts about the life of Julius Caesar


Fact 1: Julius Caesar was not an Emperor. He was given the title 'Dictator perpetuus' (Latin for dictator in perpetuity). between January 26 and February 15 of the year 44 BCE


Fact 2: He was assassinated within one month of being given the title of 'dictator perpetuus' by the Roman Senate.


Fact 3: Julius Caesar was a real ladies man and another of his lovers was Servilia, who was the mother of Brutus


Fact 4: He enjoyed honors and ceremonies when he would wear a laurel crown, because it covered his baldness, which was believed a deformity. The Ancient Romans went went with their heads bare except at sacred rites, games, festivals, on journey or in war


Fact 5: Julius Caesar was the first to print his own bust on a Roman minted coin


Fact 6: Julius Caesar was also distinguished as an author, and wrote several works which related the history of the first seven years of the Gallic War and the history of the Civil War.


Fact 7: Julius Caesar is said to have entrusted his will and testament to the oldest of the vestal virgins


Fact 8: He killed Pharnaces in battle in Tarsus, Asia Minor. The success was announced to the Senate in the following brief words, "Veni, vidi, vici"—"I came, I saw, I conquered."


Fact 9: The familiy of the Julii were said to be descended from aeneas and Venus


Fact 10: The successor of Julius Caesar was his great nephew, Octavian, who took the name Augustus Caesar and was the first Roman Emperor


The Julian-Claudian Dynasty spanned 27 BC to AD 68. This dynasty is known as the Julio-Claudians because its Emperors belonged to the patrician families called the Julii and the Claudii. Some of the most famous of all of the emperors belonged to this dynasty including Julius Caesar, the Dictator and the first Roman Emperor, Augustus Caesar who was followed by Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero.