The Twelve Caesars

“He caught up with his cohorts at the River Rubicon, which was the boundary of his province, where he paused for a while, thinking over the magnitude of what he was planning, then, turning to his closest companions, he said: ‘Even now we can still turn back. But once we have crossed that little bridge, everything must be decided by arms.’ As he paused, the following portent occurred. A being of splendid size and beauty suddenly appeared, sitting close by and playing music on a reed. A large number of shepherds hurried to listen to them and even some of the soldiers left their posts to come, trumpeters among them. From one of these, the apparition seized a trumpet, leapt down to the river, and with a huge blast sounded the call to arms and crossed over to the other bank. Then said Caesar: ‘Let us go where the gods have shown us the way and the injustice of our enemies calls us. The die is cast.’” 

This is a pivotal moment in Julius Caesar’s career and the road to the civil war that launched the Julio-Claudian dynasty of emperors. In particular, this passage provides a phrase that is often recited in Western literature: “The die is cast.” However, Suetonius’s description also illustrates his portrayal of Caesar as an extraordinary individual with a special destiny. The gods themselves intervened to ensure the destiny of Caesar and his armies, and to demonstrate that Caesar was fighting a just cause against the corrupt Senate.

“Because of [various omens]—and because his health was poor—Caesar long debated whether to stay in and postpone the business he had meant to undertake in the senate. In the end, when Decimus Brutus pressed him not to disappoint the packed meeting which had now been waiting for some time, he made up his mind and set out, when it was almost the fifth hour. […] When he was seated, the conspirators gathered around him, as if to show their respect, and immediately Tillius Cimber, who had taken on the task of initiating the action, came up close to Caesar, as though about to make a request. When Caesar shook his head and waved him away, putting off his business for another time, Cimber grabbed his toga at the shoulders. Caesar then cried out ‘But this is force!’ and one of the Casca brothers stabbed him from behind, just below the throat. Caesar grabbed Casca’s arm and ran him through with a writing implement but, as he tried to leap forward, he was held back by another wound. When he realized that he was being attacked on all sides with drawn daggers, he wrapped his toga around his head, at the same time using his left hand to pull it down over his thighs, so that, with the lower part of his body also covered, his fall would be more decent. And so it was that he was stabbed twenty-three times, saying nothing and letting out merely a single groan, at the first blow—though some people relate that when Marcus Brutus came at him, he said in Greek, ‘You, too, my son?’

Other ancient sources reported that Brutus was Caesar’s illegitimate son. However, both ancient and modern historians generally agree that “son” is meant figuratively and that Brutus was merely seen as a close, younger friend and protégé of Caesar’s. The story of “You, too, my son?”—which Suetonius does not fully endorse—dramatizes the sense of betrayal felt by Caesar’s supporters, and perhaps even Caesar himself, in response to the conspiracy and assassination. Again, this passage reveals how important omens were to the Roman outlook. Caesar ignored the omens of disaster, but at the same time, his death, like his successes, was preordained.