Hello and welcome to the history of Rome, episode 47 Octavius Octavian.

Julius Caesar was dead upon hearing the news that people of Rome shut themselves up in

their homes.

After years of civil war, peace had finally come to the turbulent capital, but now Caesar's

final settlement turned out to be little more than the eye of the hurricane.

The people implicitly understood that the liberators' vision of a restored republic

would mean little more than the return of violent chaos.

So they did not rush to embrace Cassius, they did not cheer for Brutus, they simply turned

their backs, resigning themselves to what was clearly this generation's lot in life,

pain, sacrifice, and bloodshed.

And not only did the people of Rome get it exactly right that Caesar's murder would lead

to renewed civil strife, but the liberators got it exactly wrong.

After from restoring the old republican order, the assassination of Julius Caesar hastened

its demise.

The liberators made three basic intertwined mistakes.

First and foremost, they had no plan for what to do after Caesar was dead.

In a classic display of not thinking through the consequences of one's actions, they

were so obsessed with removing the dictator that they did not think about who would fill

the power vacuum when he was gone.

It seems not to have occurred to them to make arrangements for someone, anyone, to assume

executive power once the man who had consolidated nearly all executive power into his hands

was gone.

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