Video summary
Julius Caesar, at fifty-four years old in 46 BC after his victory over Cato and friends in Africa, was acutely aware of multiple assassination plots against him yet dismissed them with a fatalistic confidence that he had "had a good run." Despite repeated pleas from Cicero and other allies to increase his security detail or accept bodyguards, Caesar refused such measures because he believed employing personal guards was the hallmark of tyrants like Pisistratus in Athens. He insisted on ruling over free Romans rather than a cowed populace, rejecting the idea of a police state where citizens could not speak freely about him without fear. This stance persisted even as friends continued to bring names of potential conspirators to his attention; eventually, Caesar threatened consequences for anyone who brought further talk of assassination plots, signaling that he did not want to hear such warnings any longer and preferred an environment where criticism was tolerated rather than suppressed through forceful security measures. On the night before his death, March 14th, Caesar spent a typical busy day handling cases, petitions, laws requiring passage, and preparing for his planned expedition to Parthia to avenge Crassus's defeat ten years earlier when Roman eagles were captured by Persian forces. That evening he attended a formal dinner at the home of Lepidus, one of nine guests reclining on couches around a central table where philosophical conversations took place alongside administrative tasks like signing letters with "vale" (farewell) in Latin to clear his inbox before departing for Parthia. The gathering included Decimus Brutus, Caesar's former lieutenant and naval commander who would later stab him the next day; historically distinct from Marcus Brutus, Shakespeare's famous conspirator but actually closer to Caesar due to their shared military history under Gaul despite being distantly related through Servilia, Caesar's favorite girlfriend. During this dinner conversation about death itself, someone cited Cyrus the Great of Persia as an example of a leader who arranged his own burial beforehand, leading Caesar to declare that he preferred sudden, swift, and unexpected deaths over long, slow ones—a sentiment reflecting both his pragmatism and perhaps subconscious awareness of impending violence. The transcript also explores cultural anecdotes surrounding Roman dining practices, noting how Aristotle reportedly suggested smaller wine cups so guests would not become too drunk for meaningful conversation before coffee shops replaced alehouses in medieval Britain to stimulate innovation through sober discourse. This led to a discussion about the Pythagorean cup or "greedy cup," an ancient Greek vessel designed with a hidden siphon that drained completely if filled past a marked line, teaching moderation and fairness by ensuring greed resulted in losing everything entirely. While Caesar's last night featured philosophical debates among his guests including discussions on omens like Calpurnia's dream of burning houses or strange bird behavior mentioned in Shakespearean tradition, the historical reality involved practical concerns such as managing an overwhelming volume of correspondence akin to a modern email inbox rather than relying solely on supernatural signs interpreted by wives or senators. Ultimately, Caesar spent his final night balancing administrative burdens with intellectual engagement while ignoring escalating threats around him because he valued freedom of speech over physical protection and rejected authoritarian patterns that would inevitably lead to tyranny through bodyguards. His refusal to heed warnings about assassination attempts stemmed from a deep conviction that true leadership meant governing free people who could criticize their rulers openly, even if it meant walking into danger without enhanced security details or police-state mechanisms designed to silence dissenters before they acted violently against him. The combination of his philosophical preferences for sudden death over prolonged suffering and his practical approach to clearing an endless stream of official duties illustrates how a man capable of great military achievements remained trapped by the very administrative systems he helped create, ultimately facing execution on March 15th after dismissing every attempt to warn him about conspirators who included men sitting at that same dinner table just hours earlier.
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What does the final day of Caesar's life
look like? So,
um
the lead-up to this is important because
Caesar is uh
you know, you know,
he he knows that there are assassination
plots.
There were even assassination plots 18
months earlier when he got back to Rome
finally from the African campaign where
he
um defeated Cato and friends.
And Cicero mentions this in a speech he
gives in front of Caesar. He's like,
"Caesar,
uh um
I have heard it is it has been said that
you you tell people
I have lived long enough either for
nature or for glory."
Because he knows about assassination
attempts and he dismisses them. He says,
"You know what?
If they want to kill me, I've had a good
run." Mhm. How old is he at this point?
>> He is so this is 46 when he gets back,
so he would be 54.
Born in 100 BC. Mhm.
Uh and 44 is is the Ides of March when
he dies. So, that's that's how old he
ends up being. But I mean, you know,
that's pretty old for a Roman. Like he's
had a pretty good run so far.
And uh but he dismisses these these uh
these um
plots.
And you know, the information just keeps
coming in sure and sure.
People are trying to kill you, Caesar.
Can you please
up your security detail?
Can you please give yourself a
bodyguard?
Like
we're begging you. His friends are
begging him and he says, "Not going to
do that. That's what tyrants do." And
sure enough, like this is the kind of
classic mold of how tyrants seize power.
By Pisistratus at Athens, I mean, you
can multiply a lot of examples. You get
a bodyguard first. You say, "Oh, no,
there's threats against my life. I need
a bodyguard, citizens. I just want to be
your servant." And
and and then that's how you seize power.
And Caesar knows that that's the
pattern. He's not going to do it. And
and it comes to the point where people
are
continuing to bring in names of
potential
conspirators. And Caesar says,
"I've had it.
Anybody bringing me more talk about an
assassination plot is going to face
consequences." He's like, "You're going
to get fired if I hear another about you
bringing me an assassination plot." He
doesn't want to He doesn't want to hear
it.
And I think that's because
he
didn't want to rule over
a subjugated,
you know,
cowed populace. He wanted to rule over
free Romans.
>> Mhm.
Um and he didn't want a police state. He
didn't want He wanted people to feel
free to say what they whatever they
wanted to say.
Uh this is
clearly demonstrated by a lot of his
actions. You know, people are
criticizing him, they're making jokes
about at Caesar's expense. You know,
there's certain lines that you don't
cross. Um
but he doesn't want to
um
up his security detail. The very last
night,
the 14th of March,
he,
you know, it's a normal day of business,
busy day at at work, and he's got this
incredible,
crushing burden of the you know, cases
to hear and petitions and laws needing
passing, and he's also preparing for
this great
expedition to Parthia. He's going to
avenge Crassus. Crassus was killed by
the Parthians. They captured Roman
eagles about 10 years earlier. So, he's
he's just trying to get get through the
next 3 days to get out of town and go
back to I mean, Caesar was good at
politics, but I think
better at war. I think he's better at
war. Yeah. Or he's equally as good at
war, and it's probably a happier place
for him. Even in BC times, people were
still drowning in admin, is what you
saying?
>> Oh, yeah. I mean
like the load that he's carrying.
Yeah, it's it's a universal problem.
Once they invent writing, you know, it's
it's over.
>> [ __ ] game over. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's the email inbox of ancient Rome.
Yeah.
And it's funny you should mention email.
So,
um
on the last night
Caesar is having dinner. As you know, he
he has a like formal dinner every night.
There's like nine seats at a typical
Roman feast. You you circle around on
couches around a central table and
everybody kind of lies down. It's it's
weird, but that's how they did it.
>> Huh. And um Horrible for the digestion.
>> It's horrible for the dige- digestion,
but one advantage is everybody has to
have the same conversation.
Cuz you're all pointed toward the center
of the circle.
>> Yeah, as opposed to an elongated table.
But this group over there is speaking
like that and this group. That's
interesting. I remember um was it
Who was it that suggested that the sizes
of glasses of wine were getting too big
around the table? Was it maybe
Aristotle? Mm. And he made a special
kind of cup. And if you overfilled the
cup, the entire thing drained.
Oh, yeah.
>> Basically, his problem was that he
wanted to have these really interesting
conversations at dinner. And people were
just getting too drunk. This is before
coffee came around. And there's this
interesting story which Or neutonic and
all that stuff.
>> neutonic I mean, they should have had
the neutropic toothpicks. Um
You there's that big transition was it
in sort of the Middle Ages in
uh the UK where
Britain started to go from just having
alehouses to having uh coffee shops as
well. And this is a boon in uh
innovation because people aren't just
pissed all the time. They're just not
drunk as much. They're stimulated and
they're going and getting stuff done.
Anyway, I think it's Aristotle that had
this issue.
His problem was I want to go to dinner
and have all of these interesting
conversations, but everybody drinks
their wine so fast Yeah. that the the
conversation degenerates into
nothingness. So, his suggestion was to
his host to make the cups smaller. Says
people will drink the same number, but
they'll not realize that they're having
less.
>> Just like
>> And it's supposed to be I think it's
like an Aristotelian cup. Do Jared,
do a chat GPT search. What was the
ancient cup that was made
to ensure people didn't overfill it?
Uh maybe Aristotle. And it's this
interesting this interesting point that
okay, well, if we reduce it down, it
means that the conversational quality
will be a bit better. But I suppose if
you're sat in a you're probably thinking
of the Pythagorean cup.
>> Pythagoras. Yeah, also called the cup of
greed or greedy cup. It's a special
drinking cup from ancient Greece
designed so that if you fill it past a
certain level, it empties completely.
Hm. Isn't that cool?
>> That's brilliant. Oh, it's cuz it's a
siphon. Yeah, that's right.
>> a a hidden siphon inside the central
column. If you pour wine below the
marked line, the cup works normally. If
you also pour above the line, the siphon
activates and the entire cup drains out
through the bottom of the stem. For
someone who tries to take more than
their fair share, they end up with
nothing. Legend says Pythagoras used it
to teach moderation and fairness among
workers or students, and the lesson is
greed causes you to lose everything.
Isn't that [ __ ] cool?
>> So Greek.
>> Isn't that sick?
>> Moderation. Yeah.
Wise man Pythagoras. Well, you know,
it's funny because
I mean, and at Plato's Symposium, that
that
they decide to pour the the wine they
pour water in the wine often for
moderation so that
>> Hm. you don't you drink less, but they
wanted to pour the wine really, really
light that night because they they all
got smashed the night before, and they
want to have like a chill conversation
that night. But Cato, Caesar's nemesis,
was actually known to be a bit of a
tippler.
Like he would he would often show up to
the Senate kind of
smelling of wine.
>> Yep.
And but that would be because he liked
to drink for a long time having
philosophical conversations. And it was
it was this kind of conversation that
that
was happening Caesar's last night. So,
Caesar is
at the house of Lepidus
and he invites a number of people to the
to be among the nine.
Lepidus is good good trusted friend of
his. And one of them is Decimus Brutus.
This is not the the Brutus that appears
in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, you
know, "And you, Brutus?" It's a
different Brutus, but actually was the
Brutus that was closer to Caesar in in
point of fact historically, funny
enough. So, did Shakespeare get that
confused? Well, he
>> Does he amalgamate the two? Plutarch
gets it confused. This is like one of
the
one of the kind of flaws of Plutarch's
biography of Caesar. He thinks that
um Marcus Brutus,
who is actually not I mean, close to
Caesar. He is
because he's the son of Caesar's
favorite girlfriend, Servilia.
But Decimus Brutus was a lot closer to
him because he was a a lieutenant of his
in Gaul. I mean, they're distantly
related, these two Brutuses, but they're
not close or anything. But Decimus was
like
naval commander against the Veneti. He's
been brilliant in the civil war.
Crucial in the Battle of Marseille. And
and in fact, Decimus Brutus was in his
will as a second.
Decimus is one of the men who who
stabbed him the very next day. He's
sitting there with him at dinner the
night before.
And they're they're they're sitting
there having their conversation
as one does. As as you know, a lot of
final night scenes of you know, great
Romans and great Greeks are like these
like philosophical conversations.
And I think that's because they had them
a lot, actually. It's very normal.
And so Like the last supper of Jesus,
that's I mean, there were maybe a few
additions, but he was probably speaking
like that most of the time.
>> Yeah, yeah, they they
It's like, "All right, here we go
again."
>> Just just a Tuesday.
So, Caesar is sitting there as the
conversation's going on. I find this
really fascinating.
He's
He's he's doing his clearing his inbox,
actually. Cuz he's a busy guy, one has
to. And his uh secretary's sitting there
kind of feeding him letters that need to
go out, that he needs to sign. Mhm. And
so, he's writing sincerely on them, you
know, signing his name.
>> Right. But the way you do that in Latin
the custom is you write vale.
Farewell.
So, all through the night he's writing
farewell, farewell, farewell on these
letters. And that's what you would have
done typically?
>> That's what you would have done to say
goodbye. Uh but but I mean, the fact
that he's like filling out letters
during dinner Mhm. I mean, this guy's
got a
[ __ ] ton of work to do. Yep. And he's
just trying to get It's brainless. He's
just kind of
whatever. Yes, and go on, Cassius. Yes.
And um
I find that striking. But at some point
in the night
she proposes a theme
for the philosophical conversation
that's going on. Decimus is sitting
right there.
What is the best kind of death?
And
the conversation goes this way and that
way. Somebody brings up the example of
Cyrus the Great, the great king of
Persia who founded the Persian Empire.
Um Xenophon says, doesn't he, that Cyrus
made all these arrangements before his
death, that he wanted to be buried in
this way and this should happen so forth
after he was
um after he was gone. And so, of course,
Caesar had read this book, Xenophon's
Cyropaedia.
And Caesar's
turn comes to him and he says, "That
sounds horrible. I don't want a long,
slow death. The best kind of death
is one that comes
sudden, swift, and unexpected."
You know, what is Decimus thinking at
that at that moment? But that that's
well attested that that's what the
conversation was about at some point
that night. Prophetic. Yeah, man. And
then you know, he goes home late and
bad dreams. His You know, if you've
heard the
read the Shakespeare play, there's all
these omens. You know, his wife has this
dream that she's
She gets him up in the middle of the
night that like wind blows open the
shutters and you know, he has to get up
and shut them and calm down Calpurnia.
And um she had this dream that she was
like holding the bloody Caesar like
looking at their house as it's like
burning and collapsing.
There's all these you know, birds are
acting weird. So the story goes. You
know, a lot of these omens typically
happen around great events in the
ancient sources, but you know, who
knows? I mean
I mean the the murder of a guy like
Julius Caesar really is a kind of like
if if ever a death is a rip in the
fabric of reality, you know, like that
that comes pretty close.
Um so that was how he spent his last
night. It was very unsettled night.
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