"What If Julius Caesar Wasn’t Assassinated?" Topic

"What if Julius Caesar hadn't met his fate on the Ides of March? Imagine the course of history if he had lived to shape Rome's destiny.

This article will unravel the tantalizing scenario of Caesar's extended rule. Picture potential new conquests, shifts in political landscapes, and the emergence of a young Octavian, who would become Rome's first emperor.

Brace yourself for an alternate Roman saga!…"

Main page

link

Armand

He would have lived longer.

He would likely be dead by now, I suspect.

Bunkermeister

I find it hard to believe that civil war would have been averted if Caesar had escaped assassination. Wouldn't it have forced the conspirators into direct rebellion?

Well, the assassination wasn't a fluke, it wasn't a near run thing, it could not have gone the other way easily. The assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand stands in stark contrast. That barely happened, Caesar was pretty much doomed.

I don't think it's interesting to suppose he simply survived that attack.

So if we're supposing he was not assassinated we're supposing that the assassins, which is to say half the senate, decided not to assassinate him. So you have to start your speculations with why they made that choice.

If they just chickened out you could suppose that Caesar continued to amass power, and, when you add avoiding the civil war, you get a very powerful Roman Autocracy heading into the new millennium. Maybe you avoid the Second Century Crisis and all that rapid turnover of emperors that makes the Klingons look like pikers. The barbarians show up in the fourth century and Rome just squishes them and keeps growing.

If they decided to start the civil war early then you get a different civil war. Caesar is good at war, but he's going against one of Rome's fundamental values: no kings. So a lot of Consuls might get opportunistic and take the other side. Maybe Caesar gets killed and things proceed as we know them. Maybe Caesar wins, but he'd have to make a lot of deals so would not end up as powerful as he might.

Or maybe they find a way to solve the problem politically. They gather allies, suborn Caesar's allies, and conduct a political reform that restores something like the Republic.

If you produced a book by having a dozen top writers each put together a chapter on one possible alternate scenario, I would read that book.

Once that conspiracy was afoot, it's hard to see how Caesar survives. So to me, the only way an alternate scenario can exist is that 1) the conspiracy against Caesar never coalesces beyond grumbling and squabbling, or 2) Caesar and allies catch wind of it and decapitate it before it hatches. A Night of the Long Knives, Roman-style. Presume after that his opponents are sufficiently cowed.

Then Caesar gets his war against Parthia, is probably successful, and recreates a sort of neo-Alexandrine Empire -- Rome stretches from the Atlantic to the borders of India. But does it hold together after his death? Probably not -- probably breaks up like the Hellenistic kingdoms post-Alexander -- but just maybe he builds a solid enough foundation that this enlarged Rome continues under successors. Et, quid nunc?

Then we wouldn't have Shakespeare's play. Thus we would have been deprived of the following phrases:
Beware the Ides of March!
Yon Cassius has a keen and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.
It's all Greek to me.
Etc tu Brute?
So are they all, honourable men!
Then cry ‘Havoc!' And let slip the dogs of war!

Historically? He would have just been one of those many jumbled Roman dudes always having civil wars.

Piper909 + 1

Armand

Autocorrect? 🙄
"Lean and hungry look."

I was at an Ancient Rome theme festival this past week so this was a very apropos post to scan. We all enjoyed some recreation recipes of what the old Romans might have eaten, some people attended in costume (I was happy to pull out my tunica and cingulum), we held a crooked election of new Imperator, lots of laffs and good Italian vino!

(smile)

Armand