There can be no doubt that the Romans were well satisfied to be under
the rule of Cæsar. The republic was a mere name, for liberty had expired
when the Gracchi were murdered, and subsequent dissensions were merely
contests for power between different factions. Hence the Roman people,
weary of revolution, were quite content to find peace under the just
though absolute rule of one master.
It is important to recognize this as the real state of public feeling,
because we shall now have to see that Cæsar fell a victim to
assassination, and it might be thought that his overthrow was the
people’s revolt from monarchical rule. But it was the act of a small
knot of conspirators who, with the cry of “Liberty and the Republic” in
their mouths, did away with the Imperator to serve their own ends.