Julius Caesar: The Making of a Dictator

Narrator: For 3 years, Julius Caesar has been fighting a bloody civil war for control of the Roman Republic against his former ally Pompey the Great.

But now Pompey is dead... and Caesar gives thanks to the gods for his victory.

He will soon return to Rome.

Man: At stake is how Rome is going to be governed from now on.

It's one thing to win, but what's he going to do with his victory?

Narrator: Caesar has grand plans.

He wants to rule Rome's vast empire and restore the city of his birth to greatness.

But in less than two years, Caesar will be dead... and the Roman Republic will lie in ruins.

At the heart of the most powerful empire in the ancient world stands Rome.

For 500 years, it was ruled by elected government.

But in a little over a decade, this republic was overthrown by the ambitions of one man.

Man: The story of Caesar is an incredibly enduring one.

The resonance of it-- so powerful.

It remains the most thrilling, the most extraordinary political story in Western history.

Narrator: Now historians and experts who understand the nature of political power will chart his rise... Woman: Rome is ungovernable, and there's only one man in the city with the power to take control of the situation.

Narrator: and ask how an individual can push a centuries-old political system to breaking point.

Julius Caesar is the most dangerous kind of demagogue.

Narrator: This is the story of how ambition turns to tyranny... Man: He's a disgrace in every single way.

He's immoral, he's irreligious, and he's a potential tyrant.

Narrator: and how a dictator is born.

Man: The awful lesson is that in the end, a populist can corrupt an entire state.

Man 2: For every other political system that values stability and justice and liberty, that should be, at the very least, a wake-up call.

Woman: Democracy has to be constantly fought for.

If we take it for granted, a new Caesar will come.

[Birds squawking] Narrator: Caesar is planning his victorious return to Rome.

To demonstrate his greatness, he makes his defeated enemies an offer.

Tom Holland: As the man who is in the process of winning the civil war, He could have murdered his enemies.

He could have launched a bloodbath.

But he doesn't.

He tries to win his defeated enemies over to him by showing them mercy.

But mercy is something that a superior shows to an inferior.

A master can show a slave.

It broadcasts Caesar's magnanimity.

It also broadcasts Caesar's greatness.

Narrator: Caesar also knows he needs his erstwhile enemies onside.

Rome has been devastated by civil war.

To revive it, he'll need the support of republican senators who have survived the war.

If he can persuade his opponents to rally to his cause and to work for the good both of Caesar and of the Republic, Caesar would be unchallenged as the ruler of Rome.

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill: The problem is that Caesar's enemies think that what Caesar stands for is tyranny, total takeover of the system by one man, backed by military strength.

Caesar doesn't see it that way at all.

Caesar says, "Of course you can be friends with me.

"I forgive you.

Come on.

"We all have at heart the same cause, which is the Roman Republic, the good of Rome."

Narrator: Caesar returns victorious to Rome.

Now he must persuade his political opponents he's not a tyrant, but the savior Rome needs.

Shushma Malik: The civil war has caused food shortages.

People are very hungry, and there is violence on the streets.

Rome is in a state of crisis.

It does need significant intervention and it does need people to take action immediately.

[Caw] Holland: When Caesar comes back, there are two great questions facing him.

One is, what can he do, as a man who is now wielding greater power than any man has ever had before, to solve the manifold crises that are facing Rome?

And the other, can the Republic be put back together again?

If it can't, then what should replace it?

Narrator: Since the start of the civil war, the Senate has been barely functioning.

For centuries, it's been the heart of republican government, founded on the principle that the people elect officials who use their seat in the Senate to propose laws that are put back to the Roman citizens for their vote.

Caesar must decide whether to revive the system or abandon it.

Wallace-Hadrill: Caesar wants to find a way of making the Roman state work.

He has no choice but to-- to get the Senate back up, and he knows as well that the key to this is to get conservatives who have opposed him on his side.

Narrator: Caesar needs his opponents to trust him.

To help persuade them, he courts a young man held in high regard by republicans... Marcus Junius Brutus.

Kathryn Tempest: Brutus is a descendant of the founder of the Republic, the man who expelled Rome's final king 500 years before, and he led the people to swear an oath that they would never again suffer one-man rule.

So, Brutus is the poster boy of the Roman Republic, and those who are more conservative-minded look up to Brutus.

But what's really fascinating is that he's also connected to Caesar.

Caesar's long-term lover and great friend is Brutus' mother.

And so, Caesar looks out for Brutus throughout his life.

There's even a rumor that, uh, Brutus may actually be Caesar's love child.

Narrator: With Brutus on his side, Caesar could win the legitimacy he needs to get the Senate working for him.

He offers Brutus a powerful position-- the governorship of one of Rome's territories.

Tempest: Brutus isn't going to turn that down.

He still has reservations about what Caesar's up to.

But like many of his generation, he wants to get to the top.

He wants great political prestige and power.

As soon as Brutus jumps onto Caesar's bandwagon, he's got the authority and the cachet and he convinces other senators to accept Caesar's pardon and to join him.

Narrator: Amongst the old guard that Brutus needs to persuade are senior republican statesmen.

Jonathan Evans: Marcus Tullius Cicero is an orator.

He's a lawyer.

He's the consummate politician.

He is political to his core.

And he stands for the Republic.

He stands for the senatorial system.

And he believes that this is the way in which Rome will thrive.

Although Cicero has high political principles, he's a realist.

He can see that the Senate has not given the leadership that Rome needs, and he hopes that he can lead Caesar towards being somebody who rebuilds the Republic.

Caesar has power, and maybe that power can be used for good.

Narrator: By the autumn of 46 BC, Brutus has helped bring old opponents like Cicero over to Caesar's side.

The Senate is reconvened... but Caesar has no intention of restoring its full authority.

Holland: Caesar is the man who has been in the saddle for years and years.

His instincts are those of a military commander.

He gives orders.

They're obeyed.

And so, it's unsurprising that he should find the requirements of a republican system of government frustrating, and, I suspect, also a little beneath him.

Narrator: Caesar promises he's restoring the Republic, whilst also seeking a way to legitimately take full command of the Senate.

Holland: Caesar by Roman standards, and the Romans are an inherently conservative people, is incredibly radical.

And yet he looks back to the past, which is what Romans had always done whenever they were faced with a crisis.

And in this lumber box of Rome's constitutional past, there's an office called the dictatorship.

Malik: The position of dictator had a very established place within the Roman system of government as an extraordinary power in a period where Rome was in particular crisis.

Narrator: The Roman Republic is founded on the idea of power being shared.

Only in extreme crisis can the office of dictator give one man temporary control of Rome.

Malik: In an emergency, you should only be a dictator for a maximum of 6 months.

You take Rome out of that emergency and then hand power back.

Holland: Now Caesar pushes the limits of constitutional propriety even further.

He demands that he be made dictator not for 6 months... not for a year... but 10 years.

Narrator: The Senate reluctantly agree, but on the condition they will review his position every year.

Tempest: Men like Brutus are willing to give Caesar these powers because they think they're temporary.

But it's a huge gamble.

It's expecting Caesar not to be corrupted by power.

Evans: Cicero is open to the idea that maybe Caesar is a necessary evil.

When a society is going through really great strains, when the political system doesn't seem to be delivering for people, then having a strong leader can be a very seductive idea.

Holland: The Republic is in a state of ruin.

The predominant feeling in Rome is a kind of exhausted hope that perhaps Caesar will be able to use these exceptional powers to bring Rome back to life.

Wallace-Hadrill: So, Caesar is made a dictator, and they give him the permission to sit between the consuls, i.e., superior to both of the consuls, give him a special seat to sit on... give him a throne.

Narrator: Using his newly sanctioned authority, Caesar expands the powers a dictator can hold.

He creates a new title for himself-- the Prefect of Morals.

Wallace-Hadrill: Praefectus morum, the man in charge of morals.

That's a really, really scary title.

But what's really important is that gives him a power to get people in and out of the Senate.

Narrator: Caesar increases the size of the Senate from 600 to 900 men.

Caesar loyalists now outnumber conservative opponents.

For centuries, the republican system has given people the right to vote for magistrates-- men who hold powerful roles in the Senate.

Now Caesar decides he will appoint all of the magistrates himself.

Wallace-Hadrill: Caesar's new power to choose the magistrates is a very serious abandonment of republican tradition, because it's precisely the power of the Roman people to choose each year who are going to be its magistrates that gives the Roman people its voice.

And Caesar the populares, Caesar the man who believes in the power of the Roman people, is now, paradoxically, removing one of the central powers of the Roman people.

Narrator: In just a few months, Caesar centralizes 5 centuries of republican powers in the office of dictator.

He takes control of Rome's laws, finances, armies, and elected officials.

As long as he is dictator, Caesar alone controls Rome.

Evans: Caesar is taking power as his own personal possession and handing it out as he wishes.

And that is a huge challenge to the whole concept of the Republic.

You're talking about the suspension of all the normal rules of how Roman political life works.

Holland: For senators of a conservative inclination, Caesar's reforms seem wanton vandalism, but this is not how Caesar sees it.

Caesar is bringing in policies that are designed to heal Rome.

Narrator: Caesar uses his power to put other radical policies into action.

Wallace-Hadrill: Caesar has got a hell of a lot to do to deal with all the problems that have been bubbling away and try to get Rome back on-- on an even kilter.

It's astonishing how much he could do so quickly.

Malik: A lot of things aren't working, and a lot of things need repair-- roads, infrastructure, aqueducts.

There are food shortages.

Holland: But he's in a position now to ensure that the mouths of the Roman people will be fed.

He feels that he alone has the ability and the vision to solve problems that his contemporaries had manifestly been unable to solve.

He sponsors the rebuilding and beautification of the Senate House.

He draws up plans to build the largest temple of the world on the Campus Martius.

He even has an astonishing scheme to divert the very course of the Tiber, as though he is a man so divine that with his finger, he can, you know, reorder the course of rivers.

Nothing is beyond the reach of Caesar to correct, to regulate, to improve, even the dimension of time.

The Roman calendar by Caesar's lifetime is in a state of chaos.

It doesn't synchronize at all with the rhythms of the seasons, the patterns of the years.

And so, amid all the many other things that--that Caesar is doing, he orders a recalibration of the calendar.

Wallace-Hadrill: He gives us the calendar, which we have continued to use for the next two millennia.

Malik: It probably seems like life is going to get better under Caesar.

He offers the people a little bit of stability and improvement to their day-to-day lives.

Narrator: Rome begins to prosper... but republican senators remain anxious that Caesar won't willingly relinquish his power at the end of his term.

Their hands aren't completely tied.

Just as the Senate can grant him the dictatorship, if enough turn against him, they could vote to take it away.

Caesar wants to make it clear who holds the reins.

He temporarily moves the base of power to his own villa, 20 kilometers outside Rome.

Malik: What Caesar does by taking power outside of Rome is demonstrating that instead of power being where Rome is, power is where Caesar is.

Narrator: Caesar decides to fill all influential positions in the Senate with those loyal to him.

He summons Rome's elite to find out if they have a place in his plan.

Holland: So, you have this extraordinary spectacle.

The great and the good of Rome effectively queuing at Caesar's door.

Narrator: To ensure conservatives stay loyal, Caesar meets a man they all look up to...Brutus.

Tempest: And he sees Brutus as if he's a son who he's looked after, cherished, and promoted.

Now, Caesar promises Brutus fantastic things.

He's gonna get a key appointment this year, and this will all put him on track for a consulship in the future as well.

It's a really bittersweet moment for Brutus.

On the one hand, he is climbing that ladder of offices.

The consulship is in reach.

But at the same time, he doesn't like the fact that Caesar is centralizing all of this power around himself.

But in the end, he's able to shrug it off because at the moment, he's benefiting from the system.

Narrator: Another man Caesar wants at his side is his most loyal general... Mark Antony.

Holland: Antony has been Caesar's right-hand man throughout the civil war.

Jeff Tatum: Mark Antony is one of the best educated men of his time, which is why he's a terrific orator as well as a talented, valorous general.

But he's also inclined to drink too much... had sex too often... and these are vices that don't necessarily sit well with a man who's a distinguished Roman noble.

But one of the reasons Caesar is able to succeed is that throughout his career, he has a talent for drawing people into intimate associations with himself.

And so, Caesar can exploit the talents of ambitious men who are centered around him.

Narrator: Caesar promises Mark Antony the consulship.

Tatum: Caesar becomes the focus of attention for many ambitious young men who see in Caesar an opportunity to become either wealthy or powerful or influential ahead of their time.

Caesar is it.

He is--he is how you participate in this new republic.

Narrator: Caesar is convinced the men he's chosen will help him maintain control of the Senate... but there are many he simply overlooks.

Evans: Seeing Caesar handing the power to his own underlings, Cicero is sitting outside waiting.

This is definitely not the way that former consuls should be treated.

Caesar is not using his position for the public good.

He is using it to belittle somebody who had great respect in the Senate.

Narrator: Caesar ignores some of Rome's most senior statesmen, but he also offends some of its most ambitious men.

Shami Chakrabarti: Looking in on all of this is Cassius.

Cassius is 41, in his prime.

He is a successful soldier and a very skilled politician.

He comes from an elite Roman family who've produced 7 consuls in the last 100 years.

And he does go to Caesar asking for promotion.

He gets something, but not enough.

Cassius is not happy with Caesar personally, and certainly not politically.

Everything now is increasingly going through Caesar himself.

Holland: There is, of course, a problem for Caesar.

Whereas before, people who were defeated in elections really only had themselves to blame, now it is possible for them to blame Caesar.

And this, of course, is storing up quite a reservoir of resentment.

[Thunder] Narrator: Back in Rome, senators who want a seat at Caesar's table contrive ways to ingratiate themselves.

Wallace-Hadrill: Caesar's ability to choose the magistrates changes the nature of political life, and now you've got to earn his favor.

So, the Senate dream up honor after honor after honor-- give him a special wreath in gold leaf to put around his head.

But the more you honor Caesar, the more invidious you make his position.

Narrator: While resentment towards Caesar festers, he grows increasingly impatient with petty Roman politics.

And when a delegation approaches him with more honors, he doesn't do what's expected of him.

Wallace-Hadrill: A whole body of senators go into Caesar's Forum, and there he is enthroned, looking as grand as could be.

And there's the Senate saying, "Caesar, we would like to honor you."

And Caesar doesn't stand up.

Tempest: In Rome, equals stand to greet each other.

It's as if he's saying in plain view that the entire Senate is beneath him.

Holland: The problem that both Caesar and the Senate face is that Caesar's preponderance has made the traditional function of the Senate, the role of the helmsman guiding the ship of state, essentially irrelevant.

Caesar is too impatient, too unsubtle not to let his fellow senators know that he knows this.

Evans: For Cicero, if Caesar is willing to disregard the basic rules of the Senate in terms of how people treat each other, then what does that mean for any other rules that the Senate may have?

This is a shocking moment, and Cicero gives up his hope in Caesar.

Tempest: It's a massive shock and must really irk men like Brutus.

He's still been holding out hope that Caesar is going to restore the Republic.

But is Caesar going to restore authority to a Senate that he doesn't seem to care much for anymore?

Narrator: For some senators, Caesar's blatant disregard for the unwritten rules is a step too far.

Chakrabarti: As a constitutional lawyer in Britain, I'd spent many years believing in the beauty of unwritten constitutions, but they have their weakness, too.

If that constitution is really just a gentleman's agreement, what happens when one of them decide that everything's going to change in their favor?

Political process is dependent upon integrity and mutual respect.

If those rules break down, it's very difficult to see the way forward for a democracy.

Chakrabarti: If you believe in a system of government that is designed to balance power, you have a moral duty to defend it.

Narrator: As Caesar shows increasing disregard for republican conventions, it's Cassius who dares to speak up.

Chakrabarti: Cassius really does try to challenge Caesar openly in plain view.

Wallace-Hadrill: Rather perceptively, he says, "All these honors are getting us "into really dangerous territory.

We are creating a monster here."

Chakrabarti: Cassius is an idealist and he does care about the republican ideal.

But the more powerful Caesar becomes, the more dangerous speaking out is for people like Cassius.

Cassius knows the tide is turning.

It's time to act, but, of course, Cassius can't act alone.

He must suspect that people are feeling as he does.

But will they be as brave?

Wallace-Hadrill: What's happening is that the opposition to Caesar is becoming more coherent.

It's crystallizing, crystallizing around a number of people, a number of ideas.

Holland: Whatever else he is, Caesar is not an idiot.

Of course he understands the resentments that are festering away in the Senate.

He's a Roman.

I mean, every Roman is aware that the resentment of your fellow senators is--is part of the deal for greatness.

Is he afraid, though?

Is he anxious?

Is he alarmed by this?

I think not.

Narrator: Caesar has better things to do than indulge his detractors.

His ambitions reach beyond Rome.

Caesar plans to conquer the one great foe Rome has so far failed to subdue: the Parthian Empire.

It was in Parthia 9 years earlier that Caesar's old ally Crassus lost many Roman legions and his own life.

Caesar believes he is the man to bring Parthia to heel.

Tatum: What Caesar has in mind is to launch the most formidable and massive invasion the Romans have ever launched.

If Caesar is successful, he will return to Rome the greatest conqueror in history.

[Cawing] Narrator: Caesar announces he'll leave for Parthia in 3 months' time, shortly after the middle of March, known to the Romans as the Ides.

Wallace-Hadrill: He's always happiest at the head of an army, defeating visible foes.

The toughest foe of all is the foe you can't see, is your old friends and your old enemies plotting together and sinking a knife in your back.

Narrator: Before he leaves for Parthia, Caesar uses supporters in the Senate to create him a role that will consolidate his power indefinitely.

Holland: They offer to make him dictator not just for 10 years, but perpetuus, forever.

Which means that if he accepts, no one will ever be able to take his dictatorship away.

Wallace-Hadrill: It's a quite extraordinary thing.

A really, really explicit contravention of Roman customary practice.

The entire idea of the non-monarchical state is that no one has power in perpetuity.

Holland: There is a moment when Caesar dooms himself.

It's when he accepts the office of dictator in perpetuity, dictator for life.

Because up until that moment, it had been possible for other senators to envisage a time when the normal rhythms of the Republic would be restored to them.

Tempest: Step by step, Caesar is being corrupted by this power he's got.

The moment he accepts the title dictator for life, the mask comes off.

He is not going to restore the Republic.

The Roman Republic, as the Romans have known it for so long, is on the brink of collapse.

Chakrabarti: Cassius saw this coming.

He said, "I told you so "when he wanted to appoint the magistrates.

"I told you so when he wanted to be "a dictator for 6 months, let alone 10 years, "and now in perpetuity.

I saw this coming."

Narrator: A month before Caesar's planned departure for Parthia, the festival called Lupercalia gives him a chance to gauge the people's appetite for the rule of one man.

Caesar presides over sacred rituals that celebrate the king who founded Rome.

Tatum: The Lupercalia begins with a sacrifice performed by the priests for this festival, and the chief priest is Mark Antony.

Narrator: The main spectacle takes place in front of a large crowd in the public forum.

Holland: Antony comes to Caesar and he presents Caesar with this diadem... Tatum: which is the symbol of kingship.

This is the kind of public drama that has been choreographed by Caesar and Antony together.

It's an incredibly bold maneuver.

Malik: Some of our sources say this was a test, that Caesar was trying to decide whether or not monarchy was going to be a route that he could take going forward in his political regime.

However, as Antony offers Caesar the diadem, the crowd show their extreme displeasure.

And the response shows him, in no uncertain terms, that the people do not want a king.

Holland: And so, he very ostentatiously removed the diadem.

He tells Antony, "Take it away and give it to Jupiter, "for in Rome there can be only the one king.

Jupiter, king of the gods."

Tempest: The Lupercalia is really the tipping point for Brutus.

His family history has been geared towards saving the Republic and not allowing any man to become a king.

Yet here is Antony offering Caesar a crown, and Brutus is powerless to stop it.

He now realizes that Caesar is the tyrant that Cato predicted he'd become, and now he's got to be stopped, whatever the cost.

Narrator: Later that same day, Caesar attends a ritual sacrifice where the omens will reveal the mood of the gods.

Malik: A part of the Lupercalia is a sacrifice to Jupiter, which was overseen by a man named Spurinna, priest in charge of reading the entrails.

He's one of the people in Rome who performed a really important function in reading the signs to determine whether the omens were approved by the gods.

Holland: Spurinna must be alert to whispers, to rumors of conspiracy.

He will have picked up the threat, the danger that was closing in on Caesar.

Malik: Spurinna can't say out loud to Caesar that he might be causing political unrest, but he does find a way to show him.

Holland: Spurinna is consulting the entrails, reaching around inside the slaughtered animal.

And he is looking for the heart of the bull.

And there is no heart.

It's hard to imagine a more terrifying or ominous portent.

"Beware," Spurinna says, "of the Ides of March."

[Birds chirping] Holland: Why does Caesar ignore these warnings?

I mean, he absolutely could have acted on them.

But I think Caesar is convinced by a sense of his own destiny.

It is his authority, his rule that is preserving peace in Rome.

He thinks that no one could possibly be so stupid as to conspire against him.

Tempest: In the wake of the Lupercalia, there's this real hotbed of discontent towards Caesar.

People are really now starting to see what Cato had seen all along.

Chakrabarti: For the first time ever, Cassius now sees ordinary people expressing their revulsion for Caesar's ego.

Cassius needs to organize senatorial forces against Caesar.

He needs a figurehead.

He really needs Brutus.

Tempest: People, senators, are calling on Brutus to do something, to act.

We see graffiti plastered over Rome and it says things like, "Brutus, are you asleep?"

"Brutus, live up to your name."

He has to get himself into gear to free Rome from this new threat of a monarchy.

Chakrabarti: Brutus will know that the tide is turning on Caesar.

Tempest: This is the right moment.

Cassius will be able to persuade Brutus that his better interests lie with the plotters, and they finally meet.

There's a big question in our sources about who instigated the plot, but the meeting of these two minds is crucial.

They can now test the waters.

What are they going to do about the problem of Caesar?

Narrator: As Caesar prepares to leave for Parthia, Cassius and Brutus invite some of Rome's most influential men to a dinner party.

Chakrabarti: Cassius and Brutus manage to bring together some longstanding enemies and skeptics of Caesar, but also it's possible to turn even friends and associates of Caesar now.

His power grab is--is just so shameless and out of control.

Tempest: One of the things that they agree on quite quickly is that there aren't really many options left.

Caesar has the entire Roman army at his beck and call, and it seems the only option is to kill the tyrant.

[Thunder] Narrator: Brutus and Cassius succeed in recruiting more than 20 like-minded senators who agree to play their part in the tyrannicide.

Tempest: To succeed, they really have to convince everyone that they're not just trying to take power for themselves, but they're liberating Rome from tyrannical rule.

And for this message to work, they can't just stab Caesar in some street or some shady setting.

He has to be killed in the Senate.

[Thunder] Narrator: But Caesar is only due at the Senate once more before he departs for Parthia.

That will be in the middle of the month.

The Ides of March.

Either the conspirators act then, or it will be too late.

[Bird caws] Holland: The Ides of March, 44 BC, is probably the day for which we have more information than any other day in the whole of ancient history.

Narrator: Caesar is woken that morning by his wife Calpurnia in a state of dread.

Malik: Not only has Spurinna warned him about the Ides of March, but also his wife had a dream in which Caesar is assassinated.

Holland: Leaving his house that morning, it's his responsibility to preside over a sacrifice.

Spurinna is there officiating.

And Caesar smiles and says to Spurinna, "Well, the Ides of March have arrived."

To which Spurinna responds, "They have arrived, Caesar, but they have not yet gone."

So, these two things combined do have an effect on Caesar.

Holland: He is asked by his wife, "Just stay for the Ides of March.

Don't go to the Senate House."

And he is persuaded by this and he decides he won't go.

[Men murmuring] Tempest: Word reaches Brutus and Cassius that Caesar is not coming to the Senate after all.

The stakes are really high.

They've gambled everything on this being successful.

[Men murmuring] Wallace-Hadrill: The urgent necessity is to make Caesar come to the meeting of the Senate.

The conspirators sent one of their number, the one they thought he would trust most.

Decimus, one of his loyal generals.

Tempest: Decimus has been with Caesar from the start.

He had served under Caesar as a military general, and he'd been a lifelong supporter.

[Knocking] Yet, like Brutus and Cassius, he was now feeling disenchanted by Caesar's regime.

Holland: Decimus says to Caesar, "This is behavior unbecoming of you.

"What--what am I supposed to go and tell the Senate?

"That you're scared of shadows, "that you're obedient to a woman's importunities?

This is not behavior appropriate to Caesar."

Caesar's whole career had been built on courage, on a readiness to confront risk.

And so, the idea that he, of all men, would start at shadows, I think it's unthinkable.

And so, Caesar is shamed and he goes to the Senate.

Tempest: When Caesar finally leaves his house, the plan kicks into action.

The conspirators have planned everything in detail, and they know that they have to isolate Caesar from his supporters.

They need to stop anyone from springing to his defense, and they need to make it clear that it's only Caesar's tyranny that they are targeting, that this isn't gonna turn into a bloodbath of all of his supporters.

The one man that they need to prevent from being at Caesar's side is Mark Antony.

Tatum: Antony's a big, strong, powerful man who's devoted to Julius Caesar.

Antony is kept out of the Senate by way of conversation, by way of dialogue.

Holland: Caesar goes in as the most important person in Rome.

All kind of senators come up and start asking him for favors or asking him questions.

Chakrabarti: Cassius watches this.

He watches Caesar heading for his, well, what is effectively his throne, and sees before him the vindication of why this is necessary.

Tempest: As the first conspirator approaches Caesar, Brutus must be in turmoil.

This is a man he's known his entire life.

He has supported him.

In--in many respects, he's treated him like a son.

And yet he also poses the greatest threat to the Republic in its entire 500-year history.

Holland: Caesar is approached by a particularly importunate senator with a petition.

He pays attention to it.

And suddenly he's feeling a searing pain on his neck.

[Dagger slices] And he looks 'round and he sees a man with a dagger.

It's dripping with blood, his blood, and he cries out, "This is violence.

What are you doing?"

There is an authentic tone of shock, of surprise.

Wallace-Hadrill: It's deeply shocking to see knives drawn in the Senate.

It's one of the most extraordinary historical moments.

Holland: The blows continue to rain down on Caesar, because it has been agreed by the assassins that all of them must dip their fingers in Caesar's blood.

All of them must inflict a wound.

The moment when Caesar irrevocably accepts his fate and surrenders to it... is when he sees the face of the man whom perhaps he had most loved, most trusted.

Caesar says to Brutus, "And you, my boy."

[Knife clatters on ground] Tempest: As Brutus looks upon the bloody corpse of Caesar, he's hoping the Senate are gonna rush to his side, show that this was a tyrannicide, justly executed.

But actually, it's a pandemonium.

There's panic, and everyone flees.

Malik: As the liberators come out of the Senate House, they're covered in blood, and understandably, the people are quite confused about what's happened.

Brutus and Cassius think that they'll be paraded through the streets as the liberators, but the people are scared.

It throws Rome into a state of violence once again.

[Indistinct shouting] Tempest: Brutus and Cassius thought they were saving the Republic, but all they really achieved was the creation of more chaos.

The very chaos which Caesar had been trying desperately to bring under control is unleashed again.

Holland: And Caesar's body is left there on the marble floor, surrounded by his own blood.

[Birds squawking] Holland: I think the tragedy of the Roman Republic is that its greatest man, the man who in so many ways exemplified all its qualities to an absolute pitch of achievement, those achievements brought the Roman Republic crashing down into rubble.

Evans: Caesar had greatness in many ways.

He was a brilliant military leader.

He was a great politician.

But ultimately, the power that he had taken unto himself corrupted him.

Tatum: When Julius Caesar commenced his political career, he could never have imagined that the Roman Republic would come to an end, and he certainly couldn't have imagined that he would be the agent that brought that about.

And yet, that's what happened in a very short time.

What are the lessons for modern representational systems that are not nearly so old?

Could modern democracy collapse?

Perhaps we simply take our political norms for granted.

Stewart: There was a moment where the Roman Republic seemed the most perfect political state on earth.

Then it had got itself into trouble.

And this reminds us a bit of our own period.

From about 1989, democracy was on the rise.

The number of democracies in the world doubled, and then a period of deep, deep uncertainty began, including the rise of populism.

And it's in that environment authoritarianism thrives, that strong men come forward to challenge democracy.

Chakrabarti: I think the Caesar story really is a wake-up call.

Democracy has to be constantly fought for.

If we take it for granted, um, a new Caesar will come.

Narrator: After 500 years, the Roman Republic dies with Julius Caesar, and Rome is plunged once more into civil war.

In the decades that follow, it will be fought over by Brutus, Cassius, Mark Antony, and a boy named in Caesar's will as his heir--Octavian.

Ultimately, Caesar's death marks the beginning of an era of emperors that will endure for the next 500 years.

Holland: We know that Romans were keen to imagine that people might talk about them long into the future.

But of course, 2,000 years on, we're definitely still talking about Caesar, and I'm sure that Caesar would be absolutely delighted to know that his glory, his fame, endures into the present day.