The most famous assassination in Roman history took place during the Ides of March. Julius Caesar, dictator of Rome, was stabbed to death in Pompey's Senate House by a group of conspirators. What exactly were these men hoping to accomplish? Caesar had been taking up too much air-time and was changing the nature of the Republic into something suspiciously close to monarchy. Well, you can't have that! What are the other elite Roman men supposed to do if one man rules all?

Since 44 BCE, this assassination has inspired and perhaps plagued many political theorists, filmmakers, playwrights, artists, politicians, and historians. Dr G and Dr Rad sat down to talk about a twenty-first century example of the reverberations of Caesar's final moments across the centuries. The murder of Jon Snow in the season five finale of Game of Thrones was clearly modelled on the death of the Roman dictator.

Enjoy this mini bonus episode!

Mini Episode – Beware the Ides of Jon Snow…

If this episode tickles your fancy for a little more classical reception, we have explored lots of depictions of ancient Rome on film, which you might enjoy as well 🙂

Jon Snow and Ghost
Image courtesy of https://gartic.com.br/deanwinchester_/desenho-livre/jon-snow

Music by Bettina Joy de Guzman.

The Renaissance bust of Julius Caesar by Andrea di Pietro di Marco Ferrucci c. 1512-14 and a still of Kit Harrington as Jon Snow

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