A Day of Murder That Forever Changed History因刺杀而改变历史的一天

Julius Caesar’s bloody assassination on March 15， 44 B.C.， forever marked March 15， or the Ides of March， as a day of infamy. It has fascinated scholars and writers ever since.

公元前44年3月15日，裘力斯·恺撒被血腥暗杀，这使3月15日（或称“三月半”）被定为“耻辱日”。从那时起，这一天就一直吸引着学者和作家。

For ancient Romans living before that event， however， an ides was merely one of several common calendar terms used to mark monthly lunar events. The ides simply marked the appearance of the full moon.

然而，对于暗杀事件发生前的古罗马人来说，“月中日”一词只是标记每月农历事件的几个常用日历术语之一，这个词也仅仅用来标记满月的出现。

But Romans would soon learn to beware the Ides of March. That iconic phrase came to represent a day of abrupt change， setting off a ripple of repercussions throughout Roman society and beyond.

但罗马人很快就会懂得提防“三月半”，因为这个标志性短语后来代表了一个发生骤变的日子，它在整个罗马社会甚至更大范围掀起了轩然大波。

Why did Romans plot to kill Caesar？

罗马人为何密谋杀害恺撒？

By the time of Caesar， Rome had a long-established republican government headed by two consuls with joint powers. Praetors were one step below consuls in the power chain and handled judicial matters. A body of citizens forming the Senate proposed legislation， which general people’s assemblies then approved by vote. A special temporary office， that of dictator， was established for use only during times of extreme civil unrest.

在恺撒时代，罗马早已建立了由两名执政官共治的共和政府。裁判官在权力链中比执政官低一级，负责处理司法事务。由公民代表组成的元老院提出立法建议，然后由人民大会投票通过。还有一个特殊的临时职位，即独裁官，仅在发生极端内乱时设立。

The Romans had no love for kings. According to legend， they expelled their last one in 509 B.C. While Caesar had made pointed and public displays of turning down offers of kingship， he showed no reluctance to accept the office of “dictator for life” in February of 44 B.C. This action may have sealed his fate in the minds of his enemies.

罗马人对君主没有好感。根据传说，公元前509年他们驱逐了最后一个国王。虽然恺撒曾公开而明确地拒绝接受王位，但在公元前44年2月，他却毫不犹豫地接受了“终身独裁官”的职务。也许正是这一举动在敌人心中埋下杀机。

Caesar had pushed the envelope for some time before his death. “Caesar was the first living Roman ever to appear on the coinage，” Josiah Osgood， a historian at Georgetown University told Nat Geo in 2004. Normally， the honor was reserved for deities. He notes that some historians suspect that Caesar might have been attempting to establish a cult in his honor in a move toward deification.

恺撒在死前一段时间一直在试探罗马人的底线。来自乔治敦大学的历史学家乔赛亚·奥斯古德2004年对《国家地理》说：“恺撒是有史以来第一个在世时就出现在硬币上的罗马人。”通常这种殊荣是留给神灵的。他指出，一些历史学家怀疑恺撒可能试图建立对自己的狂热个人崇拜，进而达到神化的目的。

The plot’s conspirators， who termed themselves “the liberators，” had to move quickly as Caesar had plans to leave Rome for a campaign against the Parthians. Two days before his departure， he was summoned to the Senate for what would be a fateful meeting. The conspirators gathered around Caesar and stabbed him to death as the rest of the Roman Senate watched in horror.

自称“解放者”的密谋者们必须迅速行动，因为恺撒计划离开罗马去攻打帕提亚。出发前两天，恺撒被召唤去元老院，参加那次决定他命运的会议。密谋者们围住恺撒，将他刺死，元老院的其他人惊恐地目睹了这一幕。

What did Brutus have to do with it all？

这一切和布鲁图有什么关系？

Whether or not Caesar was a true tyrant is debated still to this day. It is safe to say， however， that in the mind of Marcus Brutus， who helped mastermind the attack， the threat Caesar posed to the republican system was clear.

恺撒是否真的是暴君，至今仍存争议。但可以肯定的是，在协助策划这次袭击的马库斯·布鲁图心中，恺撒对共和制度构成了显而易见的威胁。

Brutus was famously portrayed in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar as a tragic hero， while Caesar was written as an unequivocal tyrant. In the play， Caesar sees Brutus among the crowd of assassins and says of the betrayal with his dying breath， “Et tu， Brute？”

在威廉·莎士比亚的《裘力斯·恺撒》中，布鲁图被塑造成一个著名的悲剧英雄，而恺撒则被写成一个不折不扣的暴君。在剧中，恺撒在行刺的人群中看到了布鲁图，在临死前对这个背叛者说：“布鲁图，你也在内吗？”

Brutus’s involvement in the murder is made tragic given his close affiliations with Caesar. His mother， Servilia， was one of Caesar’s lovers. And although Brutus had fought against Caesar during Rome’s recent civil war， he was spared from death and later promoted by Caesar to the office of praetor.

布鲁图与恺撒关系密切，他的参与使这起谋杀成为一场悲剧。布鲁图的母亲塞维里娅是恺撒的情妇之一。而且，虽然布鲁图在不久前的罗马内战中与恺撒为敌，但被免于一死，后来还被恺撒提拔为裁判官。

Brutus， however， was torn in his allegiance to Caesar. Brutus’s family had a tradition of rejecting authoritarian powers. Ancestor Junius Brutus was credited with throwing out the last king of Rome， Tarquin Superbus， in 509 B.C. Ahala， an ancestor of Marcus Brutus’s mother， had killed another tyrant， Spurius Maelius. This lineage， coupled with a strong interest in the Greek idea of tyranicide， disposed Brutus to have little patience with perceived power grabbers.

然而，布鲁图对恺撒的忠诚是摇摆不定的。布鲁图的家族有拒绝专制权力的传统：他的祖先朱尼厄斯·布鲁图曾在公元前509年推翻了罗马最后一位国王塔尔昆·苏培布斯；他母亲的祖先阿哈拉则杀死了另一位暴君斯普里乌斯·梅利乌斯。这一血统，再加上他对希腊弑杀暴君思想的浓厚兴趣，让布鲁图对被认定的夺权者没有多少耐心。

The final blow came when his uncle Cato， a father figure to Brutus， killed himself after losing in a battle against Caesar in 46 B.C. Brutus may have felt both shame over accepting Caesar’s clemency and obligation to do Cato honor by continuing his quest to “save” the republic from Caesar， Osgood speculated.

叔叔加图在布鲁图心中就像父亲一样，他在公元前46年与恺撒的战斗中失败后自杀，这给了布鲁图最后一击。据奥斯古德推测，布鲁图既为受到恺撒的宽恕感到屈辱，又想继承加图的遗志，从恺撒手中“拯救”共和国。

It is this moral dilemma that has caused debate over whether or not Brutus should be branded a villain. Plutarch’s Life of Brutus， Osgood noted， is quite sympathetic in comparison to surviving documents naming other enemies of Caesar and his successors.

正是这种道德上的两难抉择引发了人们对布鲁图是否应被定义为恶人的争论。奥斯古德指出，与现存文献对恺撒及其继任者的其他政敌的评价相比，普卢塔尔克的《布鲁图生平》对布鲁图算是相当同情的。

Legacy of the attack

刺杀的后果

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar was based on Plutarch’s account of Brutus. The poet Dante， however， took a different stance： Brutus， in killing the man who spared him， was doomed to the lowest levels of hell.1

莎士比亚的《裘力斯·恺撒》就是根据普卢塔尔克对布鲁图的描述创作的。然而，诗人但丁却采取了不同的立场：布鲁图杀死了宽恕他的人，这是注定要在地狱最底端受苦的。

Scholars disagree on just who was the on the side of good. But in the end， the Roman public turned against the assassins—and the legacy of power Caesar established lived on through his heir Octavian， who later became Rome’s first emperor， also known as Imperator Caesar Augustus.

究竟谁是正义的一方，学者们众说纷纭。但罗马民众最终对刺客们采取了反对立场——恺撒建立的权力通过他的继承人屋大维延续了下来，后者后来成为罗马第一位皇帝，史称恺撒·奥古斯都大帝。

（译者单位：北京语言大学）

1据但丁《神曲·地狱篇》描述，地狱形如漏斗，一共九层。最底端是冰封的撒旦，嘴里咬着三个极恶之人：犹大、布鲁图和卡修斯。