Marullus and Flavus, the aforementioned tribunes, were not amused, and ordered the man who first cried 'Rex' arrested. This was wordplay 'Rex' was a family name as well as a Latin title.

A few members of the crowd greeted him as rex ('king'), to which Caesar replied, 'I am not Rex, but Caesar' ('Non sum Rex, sed Caesar'). Matters escalated shortly after on the 26th, when Caesar was riding on horseback to Rome on the Appian Way. Nobody knew who had placed the diadem, but Caesar suspected that the tribunes had arranged for it to appear so that they could have the honour of removing it. According to Suetonius, the tribunes ordered that the wreath be removed as it was a symbol of Jupiter and royalty. One day in January, the tribunes Gaius Epidius Marullus and Lucius Caesetius Flavus discovered a diadem on the head of the statue of Caesar on the Rostra in the Roman Forum. Regardless of the reasoning, by practically rejecting a senatorial gift and not acknowledging the delegation's presence with proper etiquette, Caesar gave the strong impression that he no longer cared about the Senate. Roman historian Suetonius wrote (almost 150 years later) that Caesar failed to rise in the temple, either because he was restrained by the consul Lucius Cornelius Balbus or that he balked at the suggestion he should rise. He also joked about their news, saying that his honours needed to be cut back instead of increased. When they arrived, etiquette called for Caesar to stand up to greet the senators, but he did not rise. According to Roman historian Cassius Dio, after the Senate had voted to bestow a large group of honours upon Caesar, they decided to present them to him formally, and marched as a senatorial delegation to the Temple of Venus Genetrix. The first incident took place in December 45 BC or possibly early 44 BC. Roman historian Titus Livius describes three incidents that occurred from 45 to 44 BC as the final causes of Caesar's assassination – the 'three last straws' as far as some Romans were concerned. After defeating the last of the opposition, Caesar was appointed dictator perpetuo ('dictator in perpetuity') in early 44 BC. After the Roman Senate demanded Caesar to disband his army and return home as a civilian, he refused, crossing the Rubicon with his army and plunging Rome into Caesar's Civil War in 49 BC. Possible bust of Julius Caesar, posthumous portrait in marble, 44–30 BC, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican Museums.Ĭaesar had served the Republic for eight years in the Gallic Wars, fully conquering the region of Gaul (roughly equivalent to modern-day France).

Assassination of julius caesar