0:00 Gaius Julius Caesar was stabbed twenty-three times.0:04 Some say it was thirty-five.0:06 Last week we talked about history’s hidden witnesses.0:11 I was one of them, standing in the back of the Curia of Pompey that day.0:17 And what I witnessed was not liberation.0:21 It was murder.0:22 My master, a senator of no particular importance, was sweating through his toga.0:29 The whole room felt damp and hot, smelling of stone dust and nervous men.0:35 Outside, you could hear the distant roar from the games in Pompey’s theater.0:41 Inside, the only sound was the shuffling of sixty old men pretending they weren't waiting for a king.0:50 Caesar was late.0:51 And the conspirators… they were easy to spot.0:55 Not because they were hiding, but because they were trying so hard NOT to.1:02 Cassius, with a face like a clenched fist.1:05 Decimus Brutus, his cousin, looking almost bored.1:10 And Marcus Brutus.1:11 Oh, Brutus.1:12 He stood near the great statue of Pompey, staring at its blank marble eyes.1:19 Everyone knew the rumors — that Caesar was his father.1:23 What a thing, to kill your father for your other father, the Republic.1:29 This is the footnote nobody writes down, Admin.1:33 The real story isn't in the grand speeches.1:37 It's in the sweat on a senator's brow.1:40 It’s in the way Trebonius casually drew Mark Antony into a long, pointless conversation just outside the doors, keeping Caesar’s most loyal bull away from the slaughter.1:55 Then, the litter arrived.1:57 Caesar entered, looking tired.1:59 He’d dismissed his bodyguard weeks ago.2:03 A show of confidence.2:05 Or arrogance.2:06 He took his seat.2:07 The air went still.2:09 Then it started.2:10 Lucius Tillius Cimber, a man whose brother Caesar had exiled, knelt before him.2:17 He was begging for his brother’s return.2:20 He grabbed the edge of Caesar’s purple-striped toga.2:25 He pulled.2:26 It was the signal.2:27 The first knife came from behind.2:30 Publius Casca.2:31 It was a clumsy blow, a scratch on the neck.2:35 Caesar spun around, surprised.2:38 He grabbed Casca’s arm.2:40 For a second, it looked like he might win.2:43 He was a general, after all.2:46 He was CAESAR.2:47 He shouted, in Greek, “You villain, Casca!2:51 What are you doing?” But then the others were on him.2:55 A thicket of blades.2:57 It wasn't a noble duel.2:59 It was a feeding frenzy.3:01 Men who had eaten at his table, who had received lands and titles from his hand, were now elbowing each other out of the way for a chance to stab him.3:14 My own master scrambled backwards, tripping over a stool.3:19 I just… froze.3:20 Caesar staggered, blind with his own blood.3:24 He saw Brutus.3:25 He saw the knife in his hand.3:27 He stopped fighting.3:29 He just pulled his toga up over his head, and fell.3:33 Right at the feet of Pompey’s statue.3:37 His rival, victorious in death.3:39 Silence.3:40 A heavy, thick silence, broken only by the sound of someone sobbing.3:46 The conspirators stood there, panting, their hands and arms dripping red.3:52 Brutus tried to make a speech.3:55 He raised his bloody dagger and shouted something about liberty.4:00 Tyranny.4:01 No one cheered.4:02 They had killed a man to save the Republic.4:06 But looking at their faces—at the fear, the shock, the dawning horror of what they had just unleashed—I knew.4:15 There was no Republic left to save.4:18 There was only a vacuum.4:20 And the blood, pooling on the cold marble floor, was the only thing that felt real.
