Hi I'm Marieke and I am the Assistant Director
on Julius Caesar.
We're in Rome, it's 44BC and it's the festival of Lupercal
which is this wild fertility festival; big party in Rome.
We have Julius Caesar
who is processing through the streets of Rome
to celebrate his recent military triumph.
And on his procession through the streets of Rome
He comes across a Soothsayer, a Soothsayer who says
'Beware the Ides of March'
The Ides of March is just a day in the middle of March
according to the Roman calendar.
We think it's about 15 March.
Julius Caesar who is super powerful thinks,
'I don't need to pay any attention to him'
off he goes.
Brutus and Cassius, two noble men,
two friends, two politicians,
they're involved in government, hear that Julius Caesar
is possibly being crowned King.
And they really - they don't have Kings in Rome,
they haven't had Kings in Rome for 500 years
so they're pretty worried that one man
is going to become King, and then become
sole ruler of Rome.
They think, that's just too much power for one person
and that's not good for everybody.
'We need to get rid of Julius Caesar
and we need to make sure we uphold the Republic;
we have shared rulers in Rome.'
They plot to kill him,
Caesar hasn't been listening to the warnings,
and on the Ides of March, everybody goes to the capital,
business as usual. And as they start the days business
the daggers come out
and the conspirators assassinate Caesar
we think he had about 33 stab wounds
so they really went for it.
Caesar's dead, the conspirators think
'Great, we've saved Rome, we're going to run through
the streets crying liberty, freedom,
we're going to have shared power again,
it's all going to be great.'
But it's not.
Mark Antony, really good friend of Caesar's,
fantastic soldier, very famous for being
a great military leader, has seen the dead Julius Caesar
and basically plots revenge on Brutus and Cassius.
So what he decides to do is to team up forces
with someone called Lepidus
who had a strong army, and also somebody
called Octavius Caesar.
Octavius Caesar was Julius Caesar's nephew
and had actually been appointed as his heir.
And they go to war with Brutus and Cassius
who have fled out of Rome,
quite a long way out of Rome actually,
we think about 200-300 miles outside of Rome.
And they have a big battle.
We see them fighting against each other,
and sadly for Brutus and Cassius
it doesn't go their way
and they end up killing themselves
when they realise that all is lost.
Antony, Octavius they're victorious in the end
and they are going to be the new leaders of Rome.
Luckily we've also got Antony & Cleopatra
so you can see what happens 10 years later.
