who were paid to cheer or hiss at specified signals. In Plutarch’s version of this event, he specifies that at each offering of the crown, a very small group of people cheered loudly, and at each declination of the crown, the rest of the population cheered. Shakespeare only mentions the cheering of the declinations. Though Caesar never accepted the title of king, he acted as one. This, along with a prophesy from the Sibylline Book which stated: “Only a king can conquer the Parthians”, frightened the republican Senators greatly. Plots of assassination began to brew with a force more strong that before. Small groups of two or three conspirators now joined together. This phrase was written on Old Brutus’ statue: “If only you were alive today!” The general populous voiced their unhappiness loudly. They sang this popular song frequently: “Caesar led the Gauls in triumph, Led them uphill, led them down, To the Senate House he took them, Once the glory of our town. ‘Pull those breeches off’ he shouted, ‘Change into a purple gown!’”(Suetonius, pg. 53)Over sixty men were actively conspiring against Caesar. They established two plots that were considered seriously until Caesar called for a Senate meeting at the Pompeian Assembly Room on the Ides of March. This, they decided. Would be the ideal location and date.Caesar did have fair warning of this treachery. Shakespeare tells us of terrific thunderstorms, lions parading the streets, corpses rising from their graves and of people walking engulfed in flame. Suetonius tells of other signs of doom. Capuan tombs were being torn down to get building bricks. One of these tombs was that of the town’s founder, Capys. A tablet on his desecrated resting place read: “Disturb the bones of Capys, and a man of Trojan stock will be murdered by his kindred, and later avenged at great cost to Italy.”Another notable event rev...
