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Tyrannicide In Julius Caesar Research Paper

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By assassinating Julius Caesar, the Liberators, as they called themselves, hoped to obtain the glory of tyrannicide, get rid of the position of having a monarch in all but name and restore the Roman Republic both giving themselves more power and restoring the egalitarianism of the senate. The glory of tyrannicide can be traced back to the Greek times, where the act of killing a ‘tyrant’, a person in control but not necessarily bad, was considered a good thing. It may have been done for private reasons but the public supposedly benefited from the removal of this person from government. This ideal was embodied in Greek writing, especially in stories; the tyrant was villainized and tyrannicide was an honorable deed. The Romans gladly took on …show more content…

He celebrated victories over fellow Romans more than his foreign enemies, received the senate and forums seated in a gold throne as a king would, wore purple and a laurel reef around his head like a crown, allowed statues of himself be put next to gods and goddesses, and bypassed elections choosing high up officials himself often years in advance. He became a dictator for 10 years, and later for life, instituting himself as a monarch in everything but name. Having Caesar be a monarch in all but title went completely against the ideals of the Roman Republic, which had the Senate in charge with levels of power with checks and balances so no one person had too much power. When Caesar became dictator for life, he was outrightly neglecting the foundation the republic was built on: elected governing people, dictators only being appointed in times of emergency for six months, and ruling according to the people not a rigged governing body. Anyone in the Senate while Caesar was a dictator had their power diminish considerably, for which a great deal of people weren’t impressed at, encouraging them to get rid of

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