ABSTRACT
The murder of Caesar was an event which reverberated through the centuries, and judgments were greatly contrasted. Dante put Brutus and Cassius into the deepest circle of Hell. Machiavelli and the eighteenth century celebrated them as the great tyrannicides, the champions of liberty. Roman views contrasted equally. 2 At any rate, the event meant for Rome new chaos, new civil war. What does it mean to history? What I have said already shows that history has not finally judged. But the historian would very much like to know what would have happened if Caesar had not been killed at the age of fifty-six or fifty-seven. What were his plans for himself, for Rome, for the empire? We shall never know for certain; but in order to find out, or at least approach, the truth about Caesar, and at the same time to understand the conspirators, this is the crucial question. Many books and papers have been written on this question; ancient historians have reason to be grateful to Brutus and Cassius for having substantially contributed to their livelihood.
