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Liberatores ("Liberators") is the Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 name that the assassins of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
 gave themselves.

The men considered the ringleaders of the conspiracy were Gaius Cassius Longinus
Gaius Cassius Longinus

For other individuals with a similar name, see Cassius Longinus.Gaius Cassius Longinus was a Roman Republic Roman Senate, the prime mover in the conspiracy against Julius Caesar, and the brother in-law of Marcus Junius Brutus....
 and Marcus Junius Brutus
Marcus Junius Brutus

File:Portrait Brutus Massimo.jpgMarcus Junius Brutus or Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman Senate of the late Roman Republic....
 (son of Caesar's lover Servilia Caepionis
Servilia Caepionis

Servilia Caepionis is one of the few Rome women cited by ancient sources, mainly because she was the mistress of Julius Caesar, mother of one of Caesar's assassins, Marcus Junius Brutus, mother-in-law of another Caesar assassin Gaius Cassius Longinus, and half-sister of Cato the Younger....
).

Marcus Tullius Cicero was not a member of the conspiracy and was surprised by it, but later wrote to the conspirator Trebonius
Trebonius

Gaius Trebonius was a military commander and politician of the late Roman Republic, a trusted associate of Julius Caesar who later participated in his assassination....
 that he wished he had been "...invited to that superb banquet." He believed that the Liberatores should also have killed Mark Antony
Mark Antony

Marcus Antonius , known in English as Marc Antony, was a Roman Republic politician and General. He was an important supporter and the best friend of Julius Caesar as a military commander and administrator, being Caesar's second cousin, once removed, by his mother Julia Antonia....
.






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Liberatores ("Liberators") is the Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 name that the assassins of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
 gave themselves.

The men considered the ringleaders of the conspiracy were Gaius Cassius Longinus
Gaius Cassius Longinus

For other individuals with a similar name, see Cassius Longinus.Gaius Cassius Longinus was a Roman Republic Roman Senate, the prime mover in the conspiracy against Julius Caesar, and the brother in-law of Marcus Junius Brutus....
 and Marcus Junius Brutus
Marcus Junius Brutus

File:Portrait Brutus Massimo.jpgMarcus Junius Brutus or Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman Senate of the late Roman Republic....
 (son of Caesar's lover Servilia Caepionis
Servilia Caepionis

Servilia Caepionis is one of the few Rome women cited by ancient sources, mainly because she was the mistress of Julius Caesar, mother of one of Caesar's assassins, Marcus Junius Brutus, mother-in-law of another Caesar assassin Gaius Cassius Longinus, and half-sister of Cato the Younger....
).

Marcus Tullius Cicero was not a member of the conspiracy and was surprised by it, but later wrote to the conspirator Trebonius
Trebonius

Gaius Trebonius was a military commander and politician of the late Roman Republic, a trusted associate of Julius Caesar who later participated in his assassination....
 that he wished he had been "...invited to that superb banquet." He believed that the Liberatores should also have killed Mark Antony
Mark Antony

Marcus Antonius , known in English as Marc Antony, was a Roman Republic politician and General. He was an important supporter and the best friend of Julius Caesar as a military commander and administrator, being Caesar's second cousin, once removed, by his mother Julia Antonia....
. The conspirators had decided, however, that the death of a single tyrant would be more symbolically effective, claiming that the intent was not a coup d'état
Coup d'état

A coup d??tat , often simply called a coup, is the sudden unconstitutional overthrow of a government by a part of the state establishment – usually the military – to replace the branch of the stricken government, either with another civil government or with a military government....
, but tyrannicide
Tyrannicide

Tyrannicide literally means the killing of a tyrant. Typically, the term is taken to mean the killing or assassination of tyrants for the common good....
.

List of Liberatores


Some forty people joined in the plot, but most of their names are lost to history. In addition to Cassius and Brutus, known members of the conspiracy were:

  • Servius Sulpicius Galba
    Servius Sulpicius Galba (praetor 54 BC)

    Servius Sulpicius Galba, praetor in 54 BC.As legatus of Julius Caesar's Legio XII Fulminata during his Gallic Wars, he was defeated by the Nantuates in 57 BC....
  • Quintus Ligarius
    Quintus Ligarius

    Quintus Ligarius was a Roman Republic soldier, circa 50 BC. He was accused of treason for having opposed Julius Caesar in a war in Africa , but was defended so eloquently by Cicero that he was pardoned and allowed to return to Rome....
  • Lucius Minucius Basilus
    Lucius Minucius Basilus

    Lucius Minucius Basilus was a military commander and politician of the late Roman Republic, a trusted associate of Julius Caesar, who later participated in Caesar's assassination....
  • Servilius Casca
    Servilius Casca

    Publius Servilius Casca was one of the assassinations of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. Though his family was loyal to Caesar, his brother Gaius even being a close friend of the dictator, both siblings joined in the assassination....
  • Gaius Servilius Casca (Servilius Casca's brother)
  • Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus
    Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus

    Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus was a Ancient Rome politician and general of the 1st century BC and one of Julius Caesar's assassins....
  • Tillius Cimber
    Tillius Cimber

    Lucius Tullius Cimber was a Roman senator, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar and the one to give the signal for the attack on him. At the time of the attack: " According to plan, Metellus knelt in front of Caesar and in flattering words asked him to recall his brother, who had been banished from Rome." ...
     (Metellus Cimber in Shakespeare's play
    Julius Caesar (play)

    Julius Caesar is a Shakespearean tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the conspiracy against the Roman Empire dictator Julius Caesar, his assassination and its aftermath....
    )
  • Caius Trebonius
    Trebonius

    Gaius Trebonius was a military commander and politician of the late Roman Republic, a trusted associate of Julius Caesar who later participated in his assassination....
  • Caecilius
  • Bucolianus (Caecilius' brother)
  • Rubrius Ruga
  • Marcus Spurius
  • Sextius Naso
  • Minucius Basilus
  • Pontius Aquila


Plans

Although ultimately Caesar was assassinated in the Theatre of Pompey
Theatre of Pompey

The Theatre of Pompey was a structure in Ancient Rome, built during the Roman Republic era. It was completed in 7 years starting from 61 BC. It was dedicated early in 55 BC before the structure was fully completed....
, the assassins had also considered other options to kill Caesar. These included pushing him from a bridge and assassinating him during a gladiatorial fight.

Fate

The Liberatores paid a high price for their deed. Mark Antony
Mark Antony

Marcus Antonius , known in English as Marc Antony, was a Roman Republic politician and General. He was an important supporter and the best friend of Julius Caesar as a military commander and administrator, being Caesar's second cousin, once removed, by his mother Julia Antonia....
 turned public opinion against them with his funeral oration for Caesar, and within a month Brutus and Cassius had fled the city. After Caesar's heir Octavian and Antony made peace and formed the Second Triumvirate
Second Triumvirate

The Second Triumvirate is the name historians give to the official political alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus , Marcus Aemilius Lepidus , and Mark Antony, formed on 26 November 43 BC with the enactment of the Lex Titia, the adoption of which marked the end of the Roman Republic....
 along with Lepidus
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (triumvir)

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus ,born ca 90 BC died 13 BC, was a patrician Ancient Rome politician of the 1st century BC who rose to become a member of the Second Triumvirate and Pontifex Maximus....
 in 43 BC, vengeance was swift. Any Liberatores remaining in Rome were placed on the proscription
Proscription

Proscription is the public identification and official condemnation of enemy of the state. It is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a "decree of condemnation to death or banishment" and is a heavily politically-charged word frequently used to refer to state-approved murder or persecution....
 lists and killed. Those who had escaped Rome did not last much longer. Decimus Brutus was ambushed and killed by a Gallic chieftain loyal to Mark Antony in 43 BC, and Marcus Brutus and Cassius, along with most of the rest of the conspirators, died at or shortly after the Battles of Philippi
Battle of Philippi

The Battle of Philippi was the final battle in the Liberators' civil war between the forces of Mark Antony and Augustus against the forces of Julius Caesar's assassins Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus in 42 BC, at Philippi in Macedonia ....
 in 42 BC. According to Suetonius
Suetonius

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was an equestrian and a historian during the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies on the battles of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar until Domitian, entitled On the Life of the Caesars....
, "Hardly any of his assassins survived him for more than three years, or died a natural death. They were all condemned, and they perished in various ways — some by shipwreck, some in battle; some took their own lives with the self-same dagger with which they had impiously slain Caesar."

See also

  • Assassination of Julius Caesar
    Assassination of Julius Caesar

    The assassination of Julius Caesar occurred in Ancient Rome on the Ides of March in 44 BC when a group of Roman Senator self-proclaimed the Liberatores, led by Gaius Cassius Longinus and his brother-in-law Marcus Junius Brutus, stabbed Caesar to death hoping to restore the Roman Republic....


External links

  • of the assassination from Nicolaus of Damascus
    Nicolaus of Damascus

    Nicolaus of Damascus was a Syrian people historian and philosopher who lived during the Augustus age of the Roman Empire. His name is derived from that of his birthplace, Damascus....
  • Suetonius, , includes an account of the plot
  • of the assassination from the historian Appian
    Appian

    Appianus , of Alexandria was a Ancient Rome historian who flourished during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. He is commonly referred to by the anglicised form of his name, Appian....
    . Section 114 contains a list of conspirators.