The Mad Tycoon of Rome

< 241. The Future of Rome >

The Cassius faction, who did not receive the cooperation of Cato and Brutus they had trusted, became impatient.

Meanwhile, Caesar steadily passed his reforms.

Cicero and Cato tried hard to block the reforms, but it was not easy, as the citizens supported Caesar unconditionally.

It was a foregone conclusion that the number of senators would increase.

Caesar did not favor only the regions he ruled.

In addition to Gaul, Germania, and Britannia, seats were allocated to North Africa and the eastern provinces, as well as Cush and Axum.

Marcus predicted that more people from other regions would flock to Rome in the future and started a new project.

It was to build a new accommodation facility that corresponded to a modern high-end hotel.

Of course, there were inn-like facilities in Rome, but surprisingly, high-end restaurants and bars were not well developed.

Marcus planned to spread a new culture effectively to the upper class and other regions through the hotel business, not just to make money.

He placed the best chefs from his family who worked in his house, and promoted new products such as coffee, attracting attention.

Maybe later he could make dishes and knives, forks and spread them among the upper class.

While Marcus seemed to be distracted by other things, the members of the Caesar assassination group secretly held a meeting.

Cassius and Decimus shouted that they had to move up the execution time of the plan.

“Look. Caesar is steadily working on taking over Rome. There is not much time left. From next year, we will have to sit in the Senate seats with those barbarians who grow their hair and beard or those uncivilized people who walk around naked.”

“Can they speak Latin?”

Gaius Casca, who was humiliated in the debate with Caesar, asked with a grinding teeth.

“They probably can.”

Trebonius sneered.

“Maybe at a level that we can’t understand their grumbling though.”

“Well, at least we can communicate with Greece or Syria. And Egypt too. It’s true that they contribute a lot to the Roman economy, so I can tolerate one or two coming in…”

“But those Gauls and Germanic barbarians are out of the question. They are just good for slaves, aren’t they?”

Cicero frowned slightly at Basilus’s vehement opinion.

“Don’t say that outside. It won’t help at all. You know that Vercingetorix, a Gaul, has already received a Senate seat.”

“Well, but…”

Cicero looked around the faces gathered in his seat and sighed involuntarily.

Not just sighing.

He felt more than uncomfortable, he felt disgusted.

Just look at Basilus alone. 

He was notorious for abusing slaves at home.

Not only him, but also Publius Casca who had been indicted for murder before, and Lentulus who was almost deprived of his seat for excessive embezzlement.

They only shouted out their noble mission with their mouths, but in reality they just didn’t want to lose their privileges to Caesar.

‘Is it because the radicals are so desperate that they even dragged in these low-level people? It’s the end of the world.’

Cicero suppressed his urge to run away from this place right away with his superhuman patience.

Cassius and Decimus could never control these scoundrels properly.

What if Cicero also left this place? Where would this meeting go?

He didn’t know, but he was sure that they would be a disaster that would bring about the end of the aristocratic faction.

He looked around at other senators who could communicate with him and emphasized that they should approach cautiously until the end.

“We need to think more about Cassius’s claim that we have to move up the assassination. It’s fine to assassinate him. But what are you going to do after that? How are you going to explain it to the citizens?”

“Just say we killed someone who wanted to be king.”

“Is that a reasonable thing to say!”

Cicero sharply replied to Decimus’s indifferent answer.

“The citizens will believe it well. Oh, the noble aristocrats say so. Caesar must have been a bad person. We’ve been fooled until now. Wow, long live the Senate. Do you expect such a reaction?”

“Of course I know it won’t be easy. But if we keep being cautious as Cicero says, we will never be able to execute our plan. How long do we have to wait?”

“Until you work hard to reveal Caesar’s ambition! Anyway, you must never assassinate him now. If you do that, there will be such a great chaos in Rome that you might think it would have been better if Caesar had been a dictator.”

“Then we can ask Marcus to clean up then. He should be able to calm down the confused citizens.”

“Then the citizens will want him to be at least a dictator? And have you forgotten that Marcus has to go back to Antioch? Just ask him to be the king of Rome instead of Caesar.”

Cicero’s harsh criticism made Decimus’s face red.

He was about to open his mouth when Trebonius intervened.

“Ah, calm down. This is not the time for us to argue.”

He was not an outstanding person, but he was a noble aristocrat who had served as a former consul.

Cicero and Decimus also calmed their minds and sat down.

Trebonius confirmed that everyone was focused on him and spoke in a low voice.

“First of all, let me tell you what has been confirmed so far. Caesar is not a consul right now. So he doesn’t have lictors following him around. Fortunately, he respects the law of Rome in this regard.

But even so, whenever he appears on the street, hundreds of supporters surround him and form a long procession.

It would be useless for us to attack him there. We have to choose a place where there are few people and act quickly if we want to have a chance of success.”

“Wait, Trebonius. Are you suggesting that we ambush him and kill him in secret?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Is there a problem?”

“Of course there is!”

Cicero screamed, tearing his hair out.

He was now sincerely regretting joining this meeting.

“If we kill him in an ambush, how will the Romans know who and why killed Caesar? We will only make him a hero who was sacrificed by vile assassins!”

“But how else are we going to kill Caesar if we don’t ambush him?”

“Publicly! We have to denounce his crimes and execute him in front of everyone. That’s why we need evidence that he is trying to overthrow the republic and establish a monarchy. Did you not hear what I said? If we give the impression that we committed murder, we are all doomed. We have to become liberators who eliminated a tyrant!”

Everyone’s faces darkened.

It was impossible to kill Caesar in public.

Especially when he had so many loyalists around him.

“No way. We can’t even get close to him if we attack him in public.”

“If your purpose is truly noble and you have the faith to liberate Rome, you have to take the risk. Whether we become ugly murderers or defenders of the republic who killed a king depends not on our words but on our actions. Don’t forget that the citizens are simple but not stupid.”

“Then… we have to target Caesar and his cronies at the same time. Caesar usually keeps his faction members by his side. If we eliminate them all at once…”

“That’s also not allowed. Only Caesar must be killed. If we kill anyone else, the citizens will perceive this as a vile power struggle.”

A cold silence filled the room.

How could they kill only Caesar in a public place?

But no one could refute Cicero’s opinion.

Most of them were patricians who had received high education since they were young.

They had the intelligence to discern whose argument was more reasonable and correct.

Cassius, who had been racking his brain for a long time, slowly summarized the situation.

“So… if we follow Cicero’s words, attacking Caesar on the street is absolutely impossible. If we reveal ourselves and try to attack Caesar, we will be immediately beaten up by the citizens.”

“What about the Senate house?”

Decimus exclaimed with excitement.

As everyone’s attention turned to him, he spoke rapidly as if firing a machine gun.

“The Senate house is sacred enough for the nobles. It doesn’t have to be seen by the citizens, does it? It’s enough if the senators and consuls who attend the meeting see it. We can do it there. You won’t have any complaints about that, Cicero, will you?”

Cicero didn’t say anything, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

But the problem was not solved just by deciding on a place.

The most important time and method were still undecided.

Cassius pointed out what Decimus had not considered with a stern face.

“Even if it’s the Senate house, it doesn’t guarantee that our plan will succeed. Caesar doesn’t have lictors, but other consuls do. Don’t forget that. The consuls of Caesar’s faction will mobilize their lictors to suppress us as soon as they see what we are trying to do with Caesar.”

“Then we can bribe them beforehand. We can do it when Marcus is presiding over the meeting.”

“Do you think they will obey us if we say ‘hold back your lictors because we are going to attack Caesar’? Marcus is likely to be opposed to assassination. Caesar is his father-in-law, and even if he has ambitions to become a king, he might think he can stop him.”

Of course, if Marcus confronted Caesar, it would be the beginning of a civil war that would dwarf the conflict between Caesar and Sextus.

The assassins thought it would be much better to kill Caesar than to take such a risk, but there was no guarantee that Marcus would agree.

Cicero reluctantly opened his mouth again.

“There are many ways to keep the lictors away. The point is to make sure that the consuls who attend the meeting are delayed by a few hours. Then their lictors will be late too.”

“The most important thing is that we have to have legitimacy on our side if we are going to spill blood in a sacred place like the Senate house.”

“Of course. In that regard, I want to set the date for the assassination on the Ides of March, when Caesar will have the final debate on the expansion of the Senate seats.

I will launch a full-scale offensive here and try to expose his ambition to become a king. Cato will also oppose assassination, but he will gladly cooperate in tearing apart Caesar’s intentions. We will catch Caesar’s words and declare that he is trying to destroy the republic. Then we will deliver the judgment of justice. After that, we will loudly proclaim that we killed an oppressor who dreamed of tyranny. Then our plan will succeed.”

They didn’t know it, but the Ides of March was also the day when Caesar was assassinated in the original history.

By coincidence or necessity, the fate of life and death was once again divided on the same date and place.

Who would Fortuna, the goddess who controlled fate, favor?

The patrician senators believed that they would receive the goddess’s choice and melted into the darkness of the late night.

< 241. The Future of Rome > End