Beware the Ides of March. Class struggle in 44 BC

March 16, 2007
Filed under: Quotes 


Gaius Cassius Longinus: You might wish as you will. We yet have the Senate behind us and all the men of quality.
Marcus Antonius: And I… have an angry mob… that will roast and eat your men of quality in the ashes of the Senate house!

In the wake of Gaius Julius Caesar’s assassination, and his own brilliant eulogy rousing Rome’s masses against Caesar’s assassins, Mark Antony, in his inimitable way, denigrating the Optimates’ misplaced confidence in the ability of Rome’s patricians to shield them from the public’s fury. The conspirators left Rome soon afterwards. In haste.

From the first episode of the second season of the BBC/HBO mini-series Rome.