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The stabbing of Caesar, as Suetonius tells it

44 BCE, Rome (the Senate). As Suetonius tells it, over a century later.

Where and when

44 BCERome (the Senate)

2,069 years ago

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Julius Caesar

, Rome (the Senate)As Suetonius tells it, over a century later

In plain words, ours

He was stabbed 23 times, groaning at the first blow without a cry. Some writers say that when Brutus attacked, he said: you too? You, my son!

He was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering a groan only, but no cry, at the first wound; although some authors relate, that when Marcus Brutus fell upon him, he exclaimed, “What! art thou, too, one of them? Thou, my son!”

Suetonius, Life of Julius 82Translated by Alexander Thomson, revised by T. Forester (1889)Read the full passage (Suetonius, Life of Julius 82, opens gutenberg.org)

What was going on, our summary

44 BCE, at a Senate meeting in Rome. Senators led by Brutus and Cassius crowd round Caesar as if to ask favours, then attack him with daggers. Suetonius, writing over a century later, describes it blow by blow.

Checked claim by claim against: Caesar is stabbed to death in the Senate, the passage around the quote.

Why it matters

Caesar's death precipitated the end of the Roman Republic, a result his killers did not foresee. The words some authors report here differ slightly from the more famous Et tu, Brute of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

Based on Wikipedia: Assassination of Julius Caesar, The Twelve Caesars

The result unforeseen by the assassins was that Caesar's death precipitated the end of the Roman Republic.

Suetonius says that others have claimed that Caesar reproached the conspirator Brutus, saying "You too, my child?" (καὶ σὺ τέκνον, kai su, teknon).

This specific wording varies slightly from the more famous quote, "Even you, Brutus?" (et tu, Brute) from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

Wikipedia, Assassination of Julius Caesar (opens en.wikipedia.org), as of 2026-09-29; Wikipedia, The Twelve Caesars (opens en.wikipedia.org), as of 2026-10-02. Text CC BY-SA 4.0. Our line is checked against these sentences only.

Related moments

In time order, with this one in its place. Each says why it is here.

  1. c. 50 BCEabout 6 years earlier Cato warns the Senate about Caesar, in Plutarch Also in Rome
  2. 46 BCE2 years earlier Cato kills himself rather than accept Caesar's pardon Same years
  3. 46 BCE2 years earlier Caesar on Cato's death, as Plutarch tells it More from Julius Caesar
  4. 44 BCESame year Caesar is stabbed to death in the Senate The event behind itAlso in RomeAlso about death
  5. 44 BCEThis momentThe stabbing of Caesar, as Suetonius tells it
  6. 44 BCESame year Antony at Caesar's funeral, in Plutarch Also in Rome
  7. 44 BCESame year Caesar and the soothsayer, in Suetonius Same passageMore from Julius Caesar
  8. 44 BCESame year Caesar on the best death, as Plutarch tells it More from Julius Caesar
  9. 44 BCE, written laterSame year Cicero on Cato's choice to die Also about death
  10. 43 BCE1 year later Cicero is killed on Antony's orders Same years
  11. 42 BCE2 years later Antony and Octavian defeat Caesar's killers at Philippi Same years

Just before and after

The text around the quote, word for word from the same translation.

Show the passageHide the passage

When he had taken his seat, the conspirators stood round him, under colour of paying their compliments; and immediately Tullius Cimber, who had engaged to commence the assault, advancing nearer than the rest, as if he had some favour to request, Caesar made signs that he should defer his petition to some other time. Tullius immediately seized him by the toga, on both shoulders; at which Caesar crying out, “Violence is meant!” one of the Cassii wounded him a little below the throat. Caesar seized him by the arm, and ran it through with his style; and endeavouring to rush forward was stopped by another wound. Finding himself now attacked on all hands with naked poniards, he wrapped the toga about his head, and at the same moment drew the skirt round his legs with his left hand, that he might fall more decently with the lower part of his body covered.

The quote: He was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering a groan only, but no cry, at the first wound; although some authors relate, that when Marcus Brutus fell upon him, he exclaimed, “What! art thou, too, one of them? Thou, my son!”

The whole assembly instantly dispersing, he lay for some time after he expired, until three of his slaves laid the body on a litter, and carried it home, with one arm hanging down over the side. Among so many wounds, there was none that was mortal, in the opinion of the surgeon Antistius, except the second, which he received in the breast.

Suetonius, Life of Julius 82Translated by Alexander Thomson, revised by T. Forester (1889)Read the full passage (opens gutenberg.org)

When, and whose words

Date
44 BCE. His murder on the Ides of March, 44 BCE; Suetonius wrote c. 121 CE.
Whose words
As Suetonius tells it, over a century later.
How this post was checked
  • The plain-words line was read against the quote alone by a second, independent pass, which found it adds no claim the quote does not make (2026-10-03).
  • Each claim in the summary was checked by an independent pass against only the material it cites.
  • The quote itself is checked by the build: word for word, once, at the cited section of the stored translation.

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