BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Site of Julius Caesar’s Assassination Opened

Rome’s tourists can now visit the spot where Caesar was killed

Julius Caesar’s Assassination, La morte di Cesare by Vincenzo Camuccini. Vincenzo Camuccini, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, {PD-US-expired}.

“Beware the ides of March,” wrote Shakespeare about the day of Julius Caesar’s assassination. Now, over 2,000 years later, tourists can finally visit the site of this infamous killing, which set off a series of events leading to the end of the Roman Republic. While tourists had previously been able to see the site from a distance, the newly accessible square is sure to become an instant attraction.

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Visit the Site of Caesar’s Assassination

Known as the Largo di Torre Argentina, the site of Julius Caesar’s assassination was uncovered by archaeologists in 1926 during construction work but has remained largely off-limits to visitors. Now, after considerable work to make the area accessible, tourists and history buffs alike can explore the ancient square, located several feet beneath the modern city of Rome. The area includes the remains of four Republican-era temples as well as part of the theater of Pompey, a one-time rival and friend of Caesar.

Famously portrayed in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BCE in the Curia of Pompey, a meeting hall of the senate at the entrance to the theater of Pompey. Carrying out a wide-reaching political coup, around 60 Roman senators—including some of Caesar’s closest allies—stabbed him nearly two dozen times. Julius Caesar’s assassination would start a civil war and spell the end of the Roman Republic. The aftermath of the civil war would see the incorporation of much of the eastern reaches of the Mediterranean, including Egypt and Judea, into the Roman Empire.

Read more in BHD:

The Underside of Ancient Rome

Rome and the Maccabees: A Friendship Set in Bronze?

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library:

Peter in Rome

A Rare Look at the Jewish Catacombs of Rome