A loss of oligarchic power, the death of his FIL at Caesars hands, being picked on by the populace. It was an easy conspiracy to get drawn in to I’m sure.
Everyone knows that drama between Atia of Junii and Servilia got so extreme that it led to Caesar dumping her. She then manipulated Brutus into joining the conspiracy.
I think you are right. Your analysis of the influence of Roman culture on his personal views is spot on. I do think Brutus truly believed he was doing the right thing. I have seen a trend of historians to diminish ideas of morality and idealism as influences on people's actions and to basically only look at the personal interest of people. I think this dehumanises the historical figure in question and by ignoring the psychological effects that ideas of morality can have on people they are actually getting further from the truth.
The play Julius Ceasar was not about Ceasar but about Brutus trying to reconcile his betrayal . When reading Paradise Lost one realizes that all evil is based on some kind of envy .
My name is Brutus and my name means heavy So with a heavy heart I'll guide this dagger into the heart of my enemy My whole life, you were a teacher and friend to me Please know my actions are not motivated only by envy I, too, have a destiny This death will be art The people will speak of this day from near and afar This event will be history, and I'll be great too I don't want what you have, I want to be you - Brutus by The Buttress (BTW this is a song)
stuff like this makes me really wish you and Metatron would collab, lol. You seen his video on if Rome is evil? I am genuinely curious what you both would talk about in that topic or others about the Roman empire.
I haven't seen that video, but I'll definitely give it a look--I put together a legionary impression a year or two ago and his armor videos were an invaluable help. -Titus
@@tribunateSPQR Yeah i really recommend, also check the "Empire of Psychopaths: What Lead the Romans to be Quite so Brutal? DEBUNKED" video, as it almost seems like an accidental addendum to the topic of if roman people were all psychotic. I so hope you both can speak someday, you both are my favorite roman youtubers.
There were rumors Caesar fathered Brutus as Caesar and Brutus’ mother had an affair just before Brutus was born. Caesar was always favorable and partial to the boy and Brutus hated the idea Caesar could have been his father and hated Caesar for treating him as a father would treat a son trying to prepare him as a successor to a governing style Brutus despised.
Thanks! Our next video will actually feature a profile of a very obscure roman woman and we'll be sure to shine a light on some of the less well known figures in the future
These Gens Aristo Families were all intermarried, and even after being defeated, and accepting clemency, the Clique wanted their power back. Caesar was leaving for Parthia on the 17th so they had to move fast; This was an act of restoring their own wealth and station, all while keeping their foot on the necks of the Plebs that they reviled and feared.
My speculation on why Julius Caesar treated Marcus Junius Brutus is that Julius Caesar saw himself in Brutus. Caesar lacked a father figure of his own and had been unable to conceive a son. Caesar sought to be the father for Brutus because of these things.
It is worth noting here that the assassination of Julius Caesar - and the actions of Brutus - would inspire another assassin to conduct something akin to Caesar’s assassination. The assassin was John Wilkes Booth and the assassinated was Abraham Lincoln.
Plutarch wrote about Julius Caesar: "And that which led him to war against all mankind , as it had led Alexander before him, and Cyrus of old, was an insatiable love of power and a mad desire to be first and greatest; this he could not achieve if Pompey were not put down."
What another great video. I read Dante’s inferno and loved it, I do not like what Brutus did. And I’m sure he was tormented by his actions. I believe in forgiveness.
Caesar's last words: "All I ask is that I have a salad, a salad dressing and an emergency medical procedure, that assists in extracting the child out of the mother's womb, when there are complications during the delivery, named after me." 😅
what this makes me wonder is: where does brutus fall on the Roman political spectrum? was he an actual supporter of the populares? Did the conspirators actually care about republican traditions, or was it simply an attempt to remove someone who was, to an extent, conveying more benefits onto the common person?
Brutus seems to have been an oligarch's oligarch. The definition of an old-money dickhead who reveled in the prestige his lineage afforded him. I'm usually wary of applying modern political labels to Roman figures but I don't hesitate to say that Brutus was a staunch conservative. I don't feel he was particularly averse to one man rule as he supported Pompey who certainly would have enjoyed a dictatorship akin to Caesar's had he won the civil war. Surprisingly however, the politics of the conspiracy at large are rather difficult to discern (mostly because Roman politics did not map out evenly on a modern left-right spectrum). Many of the conspirators were on Caesar's side during the civil war and had benefitted from his rise to power. For them, I think the prospect of a republic dominated by one man (even an ally) was less appealing than it was to Brutus. Hopefully this answers your question - but happy to provide more detail if clarification is required
I like Parenti's book a lot (a like almost everything Parenti has done for the record) but I think he does make a few errors. Still, it is a remarkably useful book for thinking about the Roman world from an ideological perspective as opposed to just accepting the right-leaning ancient sources at face value. A better, more academically vigorous book that still comes to the same Pro-Caesar conclusions is Julius Caesar and the Roman People by Robert Morstein-Marx. I really recommend this to anyone looking to go a little deeper into Roman history
The republican traditions had become a personal tool rather than a guiding light. The conspirators were produced by the republic going through its Winter.
I think that Caesar needed to die, but his assassination was carried out very poorly. I just wish that the conspirators had more time to figure out a better plan, and that Antony had been killed along with Caesar. I feel like that would have made it much harder for Octavian to seize power.
Sulla was elected dictator for life, Sulla was not assassinated, the Republic endured the death of Sulla, why would Caesar have been diffrent, if not assassinated?
@@chrisrubin6445 Caesar was flirting with declaring himself a king. There were several incidents he used to gauge public support for his complete overthrow of the Republic. Given enough time to entrench himself fully, he almost certainly would have gone through with it.
