The Ides of March

March 15 is the Ides of March. Most famously, it is the day on which Julius Caesar was slain in the Roman Senate by a leading Senators. Leading the conspirators was Brutus - a friend of Ceasar - who determined that assassinating Caesar was the only way to prevent Caesar from subverting the republic into an empire. In the end, Brutus was correct. Only it wasn't Julius Caesar who became the first emperor - it was Augustus Caesar - after a bloody civil war that claimed the lives of the leaders of the republican faction - including Brutus (at his own hands).