Confident that he was among friends, Caesar dropped his guard. “What is the sweetest kind of death?” he was asked. Back shot Caesar’s response: “The kind that comes without warning.”26 To be warned was to be fearful; to be fearful was to be emasculated. That night, when Caesar’s wife suffered nightmares and begged him not to attend the Senate the next day, he laughed. In the morning, borne in his litter, he caught sight of the soothsayer who had told him to beware of the Ides of March. “The day which you warned me against is here,” Caesar said, smiling, “and I am still alive.” “Yes,” came the
...more
