I’ve always been a bit curious as to what list of conspirators Bellairs used. In The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt (1983), when Johnny and Fergie first meet, they spend a minute quizzing each other on trivia.
"Name the eight guys who killed Julius Caesar,” taunts Johnny, but I’ve wondered where 8 comes from. We all know Brutus, and some may recognize the name Cassius. I’m a bit sketchy after that. Scratchus?
Wikipedia says most of the names are lost to history and only about twenty are known. Nothing is known about some of those whose names have survived. Great, so then....
I said something about anachronisms a few weeks ago, including one in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Ah! We know Bellairs liked his Shakespeare, maybe the bard called out eight names there. But - ah, again! - History.com says otherwise:
Shakespeare puts two men in charge of the plot to kill Caesar, Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus (he of the famous “lean and hungry look”). Shakespeare mentions Decimus but misspells his name as Decius and downplays his role. But often-overlooked ancient sources make clear that Decimus was a leader of the conspiracy.
So who knows what list Johnny rattled off. Coupled with Caesar himself you have another group of nine – worthy or otherwise. Thoughts?
If Decimus was so important to Caesar’s assassination why isn’t he better known? In part because Brutus monopolized favorable publicity. His friends and family polished his image in publications after his death. Later Romans looked back on Brutus with admiration and laid the groundwork for Shakespeare’s eulogy of Brutus as “the noblest Roman of them all.”Not so Decimus. Unlike Brutus, Decimus was no wordsmith, nor did he have admirers with a literary flair to tell his story. Yet his role does appear in certain lesser-known ancient accounts. Although Shakespeare made little use of them they survive today. And so the record allows us to recover the tale of Caesar’s forgotten assassin.
Killing the Emperor seems to have been a big past time in Ancient Rome. I can think of at least one other emperor that was killed by a group of Romans, Caligula. You do not hear as much about his death as you do Julius Caesar's but he was also killed by a group of officers of the Praetorian Guard, senators, and courtiers. I guess everyone wanted to get into the act by this time. But then Caligula was causing problems for quite a few people. I guess making it into a play has made the killing of Julius Caesar much more famous. I wonder how many other Roman emperors died in a similar manner? But then, they probably deserved it from what has been said about them.
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