What happened
On the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC, Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by a group of Roman senators in Rome.
Background
Caesar had won the civil war against Pompey and been made dictator, latterly dictator in perpetuity. Senators fearing the end of the Republic, led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, who called themselves the Liberators, conspired against him.
Consequences
Instead of restoring the Republic, the killing brought renewed civil war. Caesar’s heir Octavian and Mark Antony defeated the assassins at Philippi (42 BC), then fell out, and Octavian’s victory at Actium (31 BC) made him Augustus, the first emperor.