Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March (March 15), 44 BC, by a group of Roman senators during a Senate session at the Curia of Pompey in Rome. The conspiracy was led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, and Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, among others. Around 60 to 70 conspirators participated in stabbing Caesar approximately 23 times. The conspirators justified the assassination as a defense of the Roman Republic, fearing Caesar's accumulation of power threatened republican traditions

. The assassination took place as Caesar was entering the Senate house, where he was first distracted by a petition from Lucius Tillius Cimber. When Caesar resisted, the conspirators attacked him simultaneously. Caesar attempted to defend himself but was overwhelmed and fell at the foot of a statue of Pompey the Great. His last words are debated, but the famous phrase "Et tu, Brute?" is likely a later invention; some sources suggest he said nothing or spoke a Greek phrase meaning "You too, child?" to Brutus

. This act did not restore the Republic as intended but instead led to civil wars and the eventual rise of the Roman Empire under Augustus