This is where the pyre once stood, and what happened here decided the future of Rome.
The assassins had expected the people to welcome them as liberators. That didn't happen. Rome fell silent, the shops closed their doors, and the conspirators retreated to the .
Three days later, gave the funeral oration. He read out the will, in which Caesar left money to every Roman citizen and gave his gardens to the city. Then he held up the blood-soaked toga with the holes torn through it, naming each and every wound.
The crowd caught fire. Instead of carrying the body to the as planned, people dragged together benches, tables and wood from the market stalls and set it all alight right here. Musicians threw their instruments into the flames, soldiers their weapons, women their jewellery. Then the mob marched off with torches toward the houses of the assassins.
On this spot a temple to Caesar later rose, the first Roman to be worshipped as a god. In its remains, under a small canopy, visitors still lay down flowers today.
His will held a second surprise too: he adopted his great-nephew , eighteen years old, and made him his main heir. Within fifteen years that young man would defeat every rival and become the first emperor as Augustus, which meant the republic the assassins had wanted to save was gone for good.
On the eastern side of the the road climbs up toward the Capitoline, and halfway up that slope you get the best view of it all.
Sources. Story: Parco archeologico del Colosseo (Tempio del Divo Giulio); Treccani (funerali di Cesare, Ottaviano) Photos: Photo: Rabax63 (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
