How Julius Caesar's funeral drama fuelled the mob

Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. The assassination of Julius Caesar is one of the most infamous plots of the ancient world, but the dictator's death wasn't the only moment in his life and afterlife marked by political machinations. Speaking to Emily Briffitt, Jessica Clark reveals how careful curation and stage management transformed Caesar's funeral into a bloody spectacle of revenge. The assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC really drove tensions sky-high in ancient Rome. How had popular feeling in Rome reached such a climactic fervor?

What exactly was it that lit that spark? So the assassination of Julius Caesar was is probably one of the most famous assassinations to take place, maybe not only in ancient history, but in history in general. He had just announced he was dictator for life in January of 44, so that year, and then by March he had been assassinated by his fellow senators. His funeral was there for an incredibly intense political event. It had been organized by Marc Antony, his most loyal follower, and it was an opportunity to really capture the public mood and win them over to Marc Antony's cause.

And he used all sorts of ways of doing that, including most importantly in what we're going to talk about, theatre shows at the performance to really incite the crowd and to get emotions running high. So we're obviously chatting very specifically about the staging of Caesar's funeral, but the murder itself was very much a drama in its own right. For those who might be unfamiliar with the story, why exactly was it so theatrical? Yeah, absolutely. The stories we have of the actual assassination are incredibly dramatic.

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