Hi,
Is there any consensus as to how many senators conspired against Julius Caesar? How many were put to death following his assassination? I’ve read varying accounts that cite the number as being 60 or even 70 senators.
I look forward to your feedback.
We don’t actually know for certain. Some sources say they were 60 or more, although a more generally agreed-upon figure is around 40. Accurate numbers wasn’t one of the strong points of ancient historians.
Anyway, one of the crucial points of the event is that the conspirators were known as Liberatores, liberators, and none of them were officially punished for their involvement. Many of them were killed in the civil war that followed, but that’s kind of what happens in wars.
Thank you Telperion. Very helpful.
Heck. we only have 100 senators. How many senators did the Romans have at the time?
The Roman republic could have up to 900 senators, but I don’t think they were ever all active at the same time. Emperor Augustus had their numbers reduced to a maximum of 600, but by that point there were only 100-200 senators left due to the fall of the republic.
This is just from my memory, which could easily be wrong, but…
I read a very good biography of Caesar a few years ago and I remember the author saying that an examination of the body in the aftermath showed something like 49 stab wounds. If every attacker stabbed him once, which seems likely from the stance that everyone would share responsibility for the act, then that is probably a pretty good estimate of the number of attackers.
However, there may have been people who were in on the conspiracy and not involved in the actual attack. If I recall correctly, someone diverted Marc Antony so that he would not be present. There may have been others.
I’ll check the book when I get the chance and report back if the number is substantially different.