It’s that time of year again to look back at what happened on the Ides of March many years ago and consider how badly the conspirators fumbled the ball.

While I will be celebrating March 15 my favorite way, by posting jokes on social media, I wanted to take the time to collect some general thoughts about the assassination of Julius Caesar and the relevance of Shakespeare’s play.

When I covered it last year, I thought that the action of play definitely felt relevant, but that the general reception of it seems to fall a little flat. Is there a way to make the play feel more immediate to a modern audience?

This year, as the events of the late Roman Republic feel more immediate than ever, I wanted to think about what we might take away from Julius Caesar, the conspirators, and the play Julius Caesar itself. What new takeaways can we draw from old material and how can we contend with those conclusions?

If you want to listen to my original episodes on the Ides of March and Julius Caesar:

Bonus Episode 4: Beware the Ides of March

Episode 14: Can Julius Caesar Still Feel Relevant?
Further Reading and Listening

If you’re looking for a more comprehensive view of Roman history as a whole, I cannot recommend Mike Duncan’s The History of Rome podcast highly enough. Or if you want to focus in on the late Roman Republic, Duncan wrote a book about it: The Storm Before the Storm