Name: 【TED-Ed】The great conspiracy against Julius Caesar - Kathryn Tempest
Uploaded: 2014-12-26T03:12:31.000Z
Duration: 5 min 58 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

What would you do if you thought  your country was on the path to tyranny?

If you saw one man gaining too much power, would you try to stop him?

Even if that man was one of your closest friends and allies?

These were the questions haunting Roman Senator Marcus Junius Brutus in 44 BCE,

the year Julius Caesar  would be assassinated.

Opposing unchecked power  wasn't just a political matter for Brutus;

He claimed dissent from Lucius Junius Brutus,

who had helped overthrow the tyrannical king known as Tarquin the Proud.

the elder Brutus led the people in a rousing oath

based on the principle that no one man should hold too much power.

Now, four and a half centuries later, this principle was threatened.

Julius Ceasar's rise  to the powerful position of consul

Years of military triumphs  had made him the wealthiest man in Rome.

And after defeating his rival Pompey the Great in a bitter civil war,

His victories and initiatives,  such as distributing lands to the poor,

and many senators vied for his favor  by showering him with honors.

Statues were built,  temples were dedicated,

and a whole month was renamed, still called July today.

meant to grant temporary emergency powers in wartime,

had been bestowed upon Caesar  several times in succession.

And in 44 BCE,  he was made dictator perpetuo,

dictator for a potentially unlimited term.

All of this was too much for the senators

who feared a return to the monarchy their ancestors had fought to abolish,

as well as those whose  own power and ambition

A group of conspirators  calling themselves the liberators

began to secretly discuss plans for assassination.

Leading them were the senator Gaius Cassius Longinus

and his friend and brother-in-law, Brutus.

Joining the conspiracy was not  an easy choice for Brutus.

Even though Brutus had sided with Pompey  in the ill-fated civil war,

Caesar had personally intervened  to save his life,

not only pardoning him but even accepting him as a close advisor

Brutus was hesitant to conspire against the man who had treated him like a son,

Cassius's insistence and Brutus's own fear of Caesar's ambitions won out.

The moment they had been waiting for came on March 15.

held shortly before Caesar was to depart on his next military campaign,

as many as 60 conspirators surrounded him,

unsheathing daggers from their togas and stabbing at him from all sides.

Caesar struggled fiercely until he saw Brutus.

Despite the famous line, "Et tu, Brute?"  written by Shakespeare,

we don't know Caesar's actual dying words.

Some ancient sources claim he said nothing,

while others record the phrase,  "And you, child?",

fueling speculation that Brutus may have actually been Caesar's illegitimate son.

But all agree that when  Caesar saw Brutus among his attackers,

he covered his face and gave up the fight,

falling to the ground  after being stabbed 23 times.

he and the other conspirators  had underestimated Caesar's popularity

many of whom saw  him as an effective leader,

Within moments of Caesar's assassination, Rome was in a state of panic.

while the assassins barricaded themselves on the Capitoline Hill.

Mark Antony,  Caesar's friend and co-consul,

delivering a passionate speech  at Caesar's funeral days later

that whipped the crowd into a frenzy  of grief and anger.

As a result, the liberators  were forced out of Rome.

The ensuing power vacuum  led to a series of civil wars,

during which Brutus,  facing certain defeat, took his own life.

would be the opposite of what the conspirators had hoped to accomplish:

and the concentration of power  under the office of Emperor.

Opinions over the assassination of Caesar  were divided from the start

few historical figures have inspired  such a conflicting legacy.

In Dante's "Inferno," he was placed  in the very center of Hell

and eternally chewed by Satan himself for his crime of betrayal.

described him as one of the most virtuous and benevolent people to have lived.

The interpretation of Brutus as either a selfless fighter against dictatorship

has shifted with the tides  of history and politics.

the conflict between  personal loyalties and universal ideals,

and unintended consequences remain more relevant than ever.