Dictator for Life

With no rivals left, Caesar had himself named dictator perpetuo — dictator in perpetuity, a title no Roman had ever held. He reformed the calendar, extended citizenship to people across the provinces, and packed the Senate with his own supporters.

To many Romans he looked like a king in all but name. And to a republic that had thrown out its last king centuries earlier, a king was the one thing it could never tolerate.

The Ides of March

On March 15, 44 BC — the Ides of March — a group of senators surrounded Caesar at a Senate meeting and stabbed him 23 times. Among them was Marcus Brutus, a man Caesar had trusted like a son. The killers believed they were saving the Republic. Instead they shattered it: 13 more years of civil war followed, ending only when Caesar's adopted heir, Augustus, became Rome's first emperor.