The Blood on the Senate Floor

 - Starting in medias res -

The Ides: The Death of Julius Caesar

Prologue: The Blood on the Senate Floor

• A cold March morning, 44 BCE.

• The Senate chamber in Pompey’s Theatre.

• Caesar enters, unsuspecting yet uneasy.

• The conspirators close in — knives flash.

• Brutus’ blow and Caesar’s final words.

• Silence after the frenzy — the dictator lies dead.

Part I: The Rise of the Dictator

Chapter 1: The Boy from the Julii

• Caesar’s patrician lineage and early ambitions.

• His charm, political instincts, and calculated alliances.

• Survival during Sulla’s purges.

Chapter 2: Soldier, Orator, Politician

• Military service in Asia Minor and Hispania.

• Marriage alliances and early rise in Roman politics.

• The beginnings of his rivalry with the Senate’s conservative elite.

Chapter 3: The First Triumvirate

• Alliance with Pompey and Crassus.

• Mutual benefit: military power, political clout, and wealth.

• How Caesar gained the consulship and command in Gaul.

Part II: The Road to Dictatorship

Chapter 4: The Conqueror of Gaul

• Military campaigns and the expansion of Rome’s territories.

• Building an army’s loyalty to himself over the Senate.

• Reports and letters to the people — Caesar’s propaganda mastery.

Chapter 5: Cracks in the Triumvirate

• Death of Crassus.

• Political fallout between Caesar and Pompey.

• Senate maneuvers to strip Caesar of his command.

Chapter 6: Crossing the Rubicon

• The fateful decision in 49 BCE.

• Civil war erupts — Pompey flees to Greece.

• Caesar’s victories from Spain to Egypt.

• Cleopatra and the politics of the Nile.

Part III: The Dictator for Life

Chapter 7: The Return to Rome

• Pompey’s death in Egypt.

• Caesar consolidates power and becomes dictator.

• Reforms: calendars, colonies, and debt relief.

Chapter 8: Seeds of Conspiracy

• Senators’ fears of monarchy.

• The tension between Caesar’s clemency and his growing authority.

• Omens, prophecies, and whispers of betrayal.

Chapter 9: The Final Days

• The Lupercalia and Antony offering a crown.

• Warnings ignored — the soothsayer’s “Beware the Ides of March.”

• Cassius and Brutus finalize the plot.

Part IV: The Ides of March

Chapter 10: The Day of the Murder

• Morning routines, ill omens, and Calpurnia’s dream.

• Decimus persuades Caesar to attend the Senate.

• The conspirators gather.

Chapter 11: Death in the Curia

• The attack begins — Servilius Casca strikes first.

• Chaos, shock, and betrayal by trusted friends.

• Caesar’s collapse at the foot of Pompey’s statue.

Part V: Rome Without Caesar

Chapter 12: The Aftermath

• The conspirators’ attempt to justify the killing.

• Antony’s funeral oration turning the crowd.

• Riots, civil war, and the rise of Octavian.

Chapter 13: The Legacy of the Ides

• The end of the Roman Republic.

• Caesar as tyrant, reformer, martyr — and legend.

• How history remembers the man who would be king.

Epilogue: Echoes Through Time

• How Caesar’s assassination shaped politics, literature, and myth.

• From Shakespeare’s pen to modern political discourse.

• The enduring question: was the murder justice or treachery?