Caesar was named dictator perpetuus. On February 15, at the feast of lupercalia, Caesar wore his purple grab for the first time in public. At the public festival, Anthony offered him a diadem (symbol of the Hellenistic monarchs), but Caeser refused it, saying Jupiter alone is king of the Romans (possibly because he saw the people did not want him to accept the diadem, or possibly because he wanted to end once and for all the speculation that he was trying to become king).
Caesar was preparing to lead military campaign against the Parthians, who had treacherously killed Crassus and taken the legionary eagles; he was due to leave on March 18. Although Caesar was apparently warned of some personal fanger, he nevertheless refused a bodyguard.
On March 15, Caesar attended the last meeting of the Senate before his departure, held at its temporary quarters in the portico of the theater built by Pompey the Great (the Curia, located in the Forum and the regular meeting house of the Senate, had been badly burned and was being rebuilt). The sixty conspirators, led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Brutus Albinus, and Gaius Trebonius, came to the meeting with daggers concealed in their togas and struct Caesar at least 23 times as he stood at the base of Pompey's statue. Legend has it that Caesar said in Greek to Brutus, "Et tu Brute?" ("You to my son?") After his death, all the senators fled, and three slaves carried his body home to Capurnia several hours later. For several days there was a political vacuum, for the conspirators apparently had no long-range plan and, in a major blunder, did not immediately kill Mark Antony (apparently by the decision of Brutus). The conspirators had only a band of gladiators to back them up, while Anthony had a Whole legion, the keys to Caesar's money boxes, and Caesar's will.
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