2016年3月15日 星期二

Julius Caesar, Brutus, Portia,

On this day in 44 B.C., Julius Caesar was murdered by his own senators at a meeting in a hall next to Pompey’s Theatre. The conspiracy against Caesar encompassed as many as sixty noblemen, including Caesar’s own protege, Marcus Brutus.
"Beware the ides of March."
--Soothsayer from "Julius Caesar" (Act 1, scene 2) by William Shakespeare


"Beware the ides of March": Julius Caesar was assassinated on this day in 44 BC at a meeting of the senate. It sparked a crisis in the Roman Republic



Et tu, Brute?
On March 15 (the Ides of March), 44 BC, Caesar was attacked by a group of senators, including Marcus Junius Brutus, Caesar's close friend. Caesar initially resisted his attackers, but when he saw Brutus, he supposedly spoke those words and resigned himself to his fate.
Caesar's last words are not known with certainty and are a contested subject among scholars and historians alike. The version best known in the English-speaking world is the Latin phrase Et tu, Brute?, which derives from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, where it actually forms the first half of a macaronic line: "Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar."

Julius Caesar
(Everett Collection)
Beware the Ides of March! This painting by Ercole de’ Roberti shows Brutus’s wife, Portia, demonstrating her fortitude by wounding her foot with a razor to confirm that she would endure death should the plan to assassinate Julius Caesar fail.



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