“Beware the Ides of March” was the ominous warning famously given to Julius Caesar, according to Shakespeare’s play. It was on the Ides of March, the 15th of March, in the year 44BC that the 65-year-old Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of senators led by Brutus. The senators had become concerned that Caesar had become a dictator, undermining the intricate governance system of the Roman Republic.
As recent experience has shown in the case of Iraq, the use of force to remove a dictator in the hope of creating a democracy rarely goes to plan. Instead of restoring the Roman Republic to its former glory, the assassination of Caesar resulted in the end of the Roman Republic and the start of the autocratic Roman Empire. After a period of civil war in which Caesar’s assassins were defeated, Octavian emerged as the victor and he crowned himself Augustus Caesar, the first Roman Emperor.
Thus the 450-year-old Roman Republic came to an end. Under the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the people of Rome were the ultimate source of sovereignty. The people of Rome gathered in legislative assemblies to pass laws and elect executive magistrates. The magistrates enforced the laws and presided over the legislative assemblies and the senate. The senate, which was composed of members of the aristocracy, managed the day to day affairs of Rome.