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Julius
Caesar
was
warned
not
once,
but
three
times,
that
March
15,
the
Ides
of March,
held
a deadly
fate.
Cautioned
beforehand
by the
soothsayer
Spurrina,
who
spoke
the
famous
words
"Beware
the
Ides
of March,"
Caesar
was
also
begged
to protect
himself
by his
wife
Calpurnia,
who
had
nightmares
of his
death
in the
early
hours
of the
fateful
day.
On his
way
to meet
the
Senate,
he again
met
Spurrina
who
reminded
him
of her
warning
but
he was
unmoved.
At the
Senate
meeting,
Caesar
took
his
place
on his
gilded
chair
and
began
to hear
the
various
petitions
of the
attendees.
Among
the
many
Senators
who
were
loyal
to Caesar
were
the
assassins
who
were
intent
on saving
the
Republic
from
his
ambition.
The
60 gathered
around
him,
and
on a
pre-ordained
signal,
they
drew
hidden
daggers
and
violently
slew
him,
leaving
him
with
23 stab
wounds.
The
frenzy
of the
killers'
attack
was
such
that
some,
including
Brutus,
were
wounded
by their
own
cohorts.
To avoid
chaos
in the
wake
of the
murder,
the
Senate
granted
the
conspirators
amnesty,
but
Marc
Antony
delivered
the
famous
eulogy
that
set
the
people
of Rome
against
the
killers,
whose
homes
were
burned,
sending
them
into
exile.
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