The Warnings

Caesar lived not far from here, in an official residence on the Forum that came with his role as high priest, and the morning of that fifteenth of March was anything but calm.

His wife Calpurnia had slept badly and dreamed that he lay dying in her arms. She begged him to stay home. The animals sacrificed that morning gave off bad omens, according to the priests, and a soothsayer had warned him weeks earlier about the Ides of March, the fifteenth day of the month.

Caesar wavered and decided to cancel the session. Then Decimus Brutus, one of the conspirators and a man he trusted, came to collect him in person, arguing that the senate was waiting and that it would be embarrassing to stay away over a dream.

He went along. On the way, a Greek teacher who knew the entire conspiracy and had written it all down pressed a roll of parchment into his hands. Caesar held onto it without reading a word.

What stands out is that he had dismissed his bodyguard of Spanish soldiers shortly before, saying it was better to die once than to live in constant fear.

From here we walk past the Pantheon and head back south, toward the square where you started.