March 15th 44 BC: Caesar assassinated

On this day in 44 BC, Dictator of the Roman Republic Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by several Roman senators on the Ides of March in the Theatre of Pompey. The senators, led by Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus, orchestrated the plot because they feared that the dictator Caesar would overthrow the Senate. The misconception that Caesar’s last words were “Et tu, Brute?” (“You too, Brutus?”), directed at his close friend, was popularised by William Shakespeare’s play ‘Julius Caesar’.