The Assassination of Julius Caesar

Most historians, ancient and modern, portray the Roman public through the perspective of the nobility. The Roman people are depicted as a mob of parasites or a mob interested only in bread and circuses. Caesar, who embraced the popular cause, is considered a despot and demagogue, with his assassination treated as the result of a constitutional dispute or personal feud, devoid of social contention. In *The Assassination of Julius Caesar*, Michael Parenti subjects these assertions of "official historians" to a refreshing critique, and draws a chronicle of popular resistance against the power, wealth, and degeneration entrenched in key episodes in the history of the so-called Late Republic. According to Parenti, Caesar, killed in 44 BC, was only the latest in a line of reformers assassinated by conservatives dating back much of that period. The leader's assassination set in motion a long-delayed civil war, the end of a 500-year-old republic, and the emergence of an absolutist regime that would prevail in Western Europe for centuries to come. In this work, the author reconstructs the social and political context of the plot against Caesar and offers fascinating details about ancient Roman society. The narrative explores rigged and fraudulent elections; the struggle for democracy; the use of religion as an instrument of social control; the sexual abuse of slaves; and the political exploitation of homophobic attacks. Michael Parenti thus tells the story of the corruption of an empire, of masters and slaves, of patriarchs and subjugated women, of capitalists who do everything to enrich themselves and plundered provinces, of bosses who extort the residents of impoverished neighborhoods and urban troublemakers, of death squads and political persecution, of rampant consumerism and social inequality. The assassination of Julius Caesar offers a new and compelling perspective on ancient Rome, replete with intriguing parallels to our own time.