{"id":20338,"date":"2016-03-14T05:05:14","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T12:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/franklycurious.com\/wp\/?p=20338"},"modified":"2016-03-13T22:36:18","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T05:36:18","slug":"mark-antony-casca-cassius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/franklycurious.com\/wp\/2016\/03\/14\/mark-antony-casca-cassius\/","title":{"rendered":"Anniversary Post: Casca and Cassius Don&#8217;t Kill Mark Antony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/franklycurious.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/MarkAntony.png\" width=\"150\" height=\"200\" alt=\"Mark Antony\" title=\"Mark Antony\" class=\"left\" \/>On this day in 44 BCE, Casca and Cassius were making their final plans for the assassination of Julius Caesar, which would occur the following day. And you might ask, why didn&#8217;t I just wait until tomorrow to talk about the assassination? For one thing, I don&#8217;t care about the assassination. I&#8217;m much more interested in the plays about it than the actual event. That&#8217;s the thing about power: there always other powerful people who want to kill you. This is why I like my quiet little life.<\/p>\n<p>But Casca and Cassius made a fateful decision on that day. They decided that Mark Antony should be kept alive. Okay people, here is the lesson of the day: do not keep people alive who will hunt you down and kill you. Certainly, that is what Mark Antony did. So it was really important that he was alive. Oh, I&#8217;m just kidding! It made no difference whatsoever. But it is interesting what they were thinking. Their idea was that the Roman Republic was on its way out and they were trying to save it. So they didn&#8217;t want to turn it into a blood bath. They just wanted to get rid of Julius Caesar.<\/p>\n<p>But it just goes to show that history isn&#8217;t about people. The Roman Republic was on its way toward the Roman Empire, and there were a lot of reasons that had to do with that. Julius Caesar&#8217;s being <em>dictator perpetuo<\/em> was not the problem. The problem was that the Senate felt the need to make him <em>dictator perpetuo<\/em>. And if it hadn&#8217;t been Julius Caesar, it would have been someone else. I don&#8217;t blame Casca and Cassius for thinking this.<\/p>\n<p>Actually, most people today believe the Great Men theory of history, even if they don&#8217;t know that the theory exists. And I&#8217;ll admit: personalities do play <em>some<\/em> role. The fact that Hitler was alive meant something different to Germany than if he hadn&#8217;t been alive. Just the same, <em>something<\/em> bad was going to happen in Germany in the 1930s. And today: Trump doesn&#8217;t bother me. The fact that we have a good chunk of the population that is just begging for an authoritarian like him is what bothers me. And don&#8217;t fool yourself: the same authoritarian tendency that drives Trump supporters also drives Cruz supporters, so the Republicans are an authoritarian party.<\/p>\n<p>But within two decades of the assassination of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony would be dead, and so would the Roman Republic. On the other hand, we never would have had <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/I-Claudius-Derek-Jacobi\/dp\/B001FRNB9O\/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=frankcurio-20\" rel=\"nofollow\">I, Claudius<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On this day in 44 BCE, Casca and Cassius were making their final plans for the assassination of Julius Caesar, which would occur the following day. And you might ask, why didn&#8217;t I just wait until tomorrow to talk about &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/franklycurious.com\/wp\/2016\/03\/14\/mark-antony-casca-cassius\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birthdays-anniversaries-that-kind-of-stuff","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mark Antony Saved by Casca and Cassius (Anniversary Post)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On this day in 44 BC, Casca and Cassius decided not to kill Mark Antony, which was kind of a mistake given he later effectively killed them. But maybe not.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/franklycurious.com\/wp\/2016\/03\/14\/mark-antony-casca-cassius\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mark Antony Saved by Casca and Cassius (Anniversary Post)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On this day in 44 BC, Casca and Cassius decided not to kill Mark Antony, which was kind of a mistake given he later effectively killed them. But maybe not.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/franklycurious.com\/wp\/2016\/03\/14\/mark-antony-casca-cassius\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Frankly Curious\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-14T12:05:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/franklycurious.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/MarkAntony.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Frank Moraes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CuriousFrankly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CuriousFrankly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Frank Moraes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/franklycurious.com\\\/wp\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/14\\\/mark-antony-casca-cassius\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/franklycurious.com\\\/wp\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/14\\\/mark-antony-casca-cassius\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Frank Moraes\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/franklycurious.com\\\/wp\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/83eb03e32b580db461fb15e1ba4bc026\"},\"headline\":\"Anniversary Post: Casca and Cassius Don&#8217;t Kill Mark Antony\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-14T12:05:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/franklycurious.com\\\/wp\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/14\\\/mark-antony-casca-cassius\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":450,\"commentCount\":13,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/franklycurious.com\\\/wp\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/83eb03e32b580db461fb15e1ba4bc026\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/franklycurious.com\\\/wp\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/14\\\/mark-antony-casca-cassius\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/franklycurious.com\\\/wp\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/MarkAntony.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Anniversaries\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/franklycurious.com\\\/wp\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/14\\\/mark-antony-casca-cassius\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/franklycurious.com\\\/wp\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/14\\\/mark-antony-casca-cassius\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/franklycurious.com\\\/wp\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/14\\\/mark-antony-casca-cassius\\\/\",\"name\":\"Mark Antony Saved by Casca and Cassius (Anniversary Post)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/franklycurious.com\\\/wp\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/franklycurious.com\\\/wp\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/14\\\/mark-antony-casca-cassius\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/franklycurious.com\\\/wp\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/14\\\/mark-antony-casca-cassius\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/franklycurious.com\\\/wp\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/MarkAntony.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-14T12:05:14+00:00\",\"description\":\"On this day in 44 BC, Casca and Cassius decided not to kill Mark Antony, which was kind of a mistake given he later effectively killed them. 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