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On the morning of March 15, 44 BC, Gaius Julius Caesar sat down to what would be his last meal. His wife Calpurnia, shaken by nightmares of his murder, begged him not to attend the Senate that day. The soothsayer Spurinna had already warned him to beware the Ides of March.

Caesar nearly listened. He sent Mark Antony to dismiss the Senate. But then Decimus Brutus — one of the very men who would soon plunge a dagger into him — arrived at his home and personally convinced him to come. “Would you give your enemies this ammunition?” Decimus asked. “They will say you rule the Senate by fear and whim.”

“Conantem amici ut resideret, Decimus Brutus calumniatoribus ne vacuam curiam contemnendo defecerit monuit.”— Suetonius, Vita Caesaris, 81