High school

The assassination of Julius Caesar: what the painting gets right

Your child is reading Julius Caesar. Gérôme painted the minute after the murder: Caesar dead on the floor, the senators who stabbed him already walking away. Here is what really happened on the Ides of March, and what Shakespeare changed for the stage.

Gérôme's The Death of Caesar: Caesar's body lies under a white toga by an overturned chair while the senators who killed him crowd toward the exit with raised swords
Jean-Léon Gérôme, The Death of Caesar, 1867. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Source and licence

The book your child may be reading

What really happened (March 15, 44 BC)

On March 15, 44 BC, the Ides of March, a group of Roman senators stabbed Julius Caesar to death at a Senate meeting in the Curia of Pompey, a hall attached to the Theatre of Pompey in Rome.

The plot was led by Marcus Brutus, Gaius Cassius and Decimus Brutus, and ancient writers put the number of conspirators at about 60. They said they were saving the Republic from a man who wanted to be king; Caesar had been made dictator for life.

Caesar was stabbed 23 times. He fell near a statue of Pompey, his old rival. A doctor who examined the body said only one wound, the second one near his ribs, was fatal.

The murder did not save the Republic. It led to another civil war, and Caesar's adopted heir Octavian later became Augustus, the first Roman emperor.

What the painting shows

The Death of Caesar, by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1867.

  • Caesar's body lies in the lower left corner under a white toga, next to his overturned golden chair and the dark statue at the edge of the room.
  • The conspirators crowd toward the doorway on the right with their swords in the air, celebrating.
  • One senator still sits alone on the empty benches at the far right, watching them go.

What is true

  • The killing really happened at a Senate meeting in a hall built by Pompey, and Caesar fell near a statue of Pompey.
  • After the murder the senators who were not in the plot ran, and the conspirators marched out through the city announcing that Rome was free. Caesar's body was left where it fell for some time before enslaved servants carried it home on a litter.
  • Gérôme chose the moment after the attack rather than the stabbing itself, which keeps to what the sources describe instead of inventing the fight.

What was changed or invented

  • The grand marble hall is Gérôme's own design. Nobody knows exactly what the inside of the Curia of Pompey looked like.
  • Shakespeare's play moves the murder to the Capitol, for dramatic effect.
  • 'Et tu, Brute?' is not a quote. Plutarch says Caesar said nothing and pulled his toga over his head when he saw Brutus. Suetonius says he said nothing, though some people claimed he said, in Greek, 'You too, child?'

Short timeline

  1. 49 BC · Caesar crosses the Rubicon with his army and starts a civil war against Pompey.
  2. Early 44 BC · Caesar is named dictator for life.
  3. Mar 15, 44 BC · Caesar is killed at the Curia of Pompey.
  4. 42 BC · Brutus and Cassius are defeated at Philippi.
  5. 27 BC · Octavian takes the name Augustus and rules as the first emperor.
  6. 1599 · Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is first performed.

Talk about it: 3 questions

For the dinner table or the classroom.

  1. Gérôme left out the stabbing and painted the moment after it. Why might that be more powerful than showing the attack?
  2. Shakespeare gives Caesar the words 'Et tu, Brute?' even though the sources say he was silent. What does the line add to the play?
  3. The conspirators said they were saving the Republic. Look at what happened next. Did they get what they wanted?

Also worth reading

  • High school

    SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

    by Mary Beard

    A readable history of ancient Rome by the classicist Mary Beard, for older readers who want the bigger story around the murder.

    Get the book on Amazon

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Sources

More history through paintings

All paintings, by grade and AP course →

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