I know we all love the Ides of March here and I know how very cathartic it would be if our own current wannabe dictator experienced some serious deja vu. I get that most of you are not being serious here when you say you want an Ides of March repeat, but for those who are, let me seriously explain something to you.
Caesar’s assassination did not save the Roman Republic, it was its final death blow. Do you know what happened immediately after the Stabbening?
Caesar’s supporters turned him into a martyr and whipped his populist power base into a violent bloody mob. The second Triumvirate enacted a bloody war and purge against Caesar’s enemies before turning on each other like Cadmus’ dragon teeth warriors, until eventually Octavian emerged on top and officially ended the Republic. And throughout it all, the common man suffered.
I’d also like to remind you that the men who stabbed Caesar were not protecting our Enlightenment inspired Democratic Republic. They were protecting Roman Republicanism. They were not rebels, they were wealthy, elite men, fighting to preserve their own power base and wealth. Ultimately the entire downfall of the Republic was centered on one issue: land reform. The elites of Rome sought to forcibly buy out land from yeoman farmers and consolidate it into large villas, forcing the previous owners out into poverty to be replaced with cheap slave labor. Populists like Caesar fought to enact land reforms to protect the small farmers. He also funded a lot of public infrastructure and welfare projects as well as the arts.
Caesar was more of a “leftist” (whatever the fuck that even means for someone who lived thousands of years before the development of feudalism let alone capitalism and socialism) than the men who stabbed him. He was also a dictator and tyrant, unbelievably corrupt and a callous ruthless opportunist to his core (not to mention, like all Romans, a genocidal, colonizing racist). The Ides of March is not a guide, it’s a cautionary tale.