Beware the Ides of March.  Do you know what this famous phrase means?

If you are a fan of William Shakespeare you will know that this phrase is from the play, Julius Caesar.  The soothsayer warns Julius Caesar that he will die on March 15.  While the phrase sounds ominous to us, it would not have sounded strange to Julius Caesar.  The Romans had different names for different days of the month.  If Caesar had received this warning, he would have just thought, “March 15h might be a bad day.”

The assassination of Julius Caesar is arguably the most famous assassination in world history.  On March 15, 44 B.C., Julius Caesar was murdered at the Theatre of Pompey.  The members of the Senate plotted to murder Caesar.  They surrounded him and stabbed Caesar to death.

But there is more to the story.  Author Barry Strauss just released his new book, The Death of Caesar: the Story of History’s Most Famous Assassination.  This new audiobook promises to shed new light on one of the most famous days in history.  Strauss details the key players and events that led to the assassination of Julius Caesar and he reveals a person that few people know about.  Decimus, one of Caesar’s generals and a lifelong friend, was a mole.  His betrayal was worse than the betrayal of Brutus.

The Davenport Public Library has a lot of information on Julius Caesar as well as William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar.  If you would like to learn more, talk to one of our reference librarians today.