This, they decided. Would be the time and place. Caesar did have fair warning of this. Shakespeare tells us of horrible thunderstorms, lions parading the streets, corpses rising from their graves and of people walking in flames. 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 towns 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. The soothsayer Spurinnia gave Caesar the famous warning Beware the ides of March, to which Caesar paid no mind. Calpurnia, his wife, was stricken with dreadful nightmares the night of March 14th, and cried aloud in her sleep, Help, ho! They murder Caesar! (II: iii) Still Caesar, after some careful thought and nagging by Decimus Brutus, went to the Assembly Room. He set forth at 10 oclock. On his way to the House, he was handed a note that outlined the plot against him. Caesar did not read it, but placed it in a pile of documents that he planned to read later. He saw the prophet Spurinnia, and said, The Ides of March have come, to which she replied Yes, they have come, but they have not yet gone. As soon as Caesar took his seat the conspirators crowded around him as if to pay their respects. Tillius Cimber, who had taken the lead, came up close, pretending to ask a question. Caesar made a gesture of postponement, but Cimber caught hold of his shoulders. This is violence! Caesar cried, and at that moment, as he turned away, one of the Casca brothers with a sweep of his dagger stabbed him just below the throat. Caesar grabbed Cascas arm and pushed it away with his stylus????; he was leaping away when another dagger blow stopped him. Faced by a circle of daggers, he pulled the top of his robe down over his face, and at the same time dropped the lower part, letting it fall to the ground so th...
