ABSTRACT
the idea that there was something contradictory, inexplicable, and elusive about Gaius Julius Caesar's behavior on the last morning of his life haunts us still as it haunted his contemporaries. Surely the most powerful and feared man in Rome had been fully informed of the conspirators' plans to kill him. We know the secret had not been kept and many people were aware that something was afoot. Why then had he gone to the Senate meeting ? Why did he expose himself so recklessly? Had he gone because he had wanted to die that day ? Did the Republic, to which he had given so many victories, owe him this last benefit too, his own death, the death of the tyrant who had extinguished the ancient liberties ? Had he tried to rob the conspirators of their glory ?
