A random tourist turned to me today, asking, “Where are we?” Thus started the most satisfying encounter of my entire trip.
I blinked. “We’re at the Largo di Torre Argentina.”
I love how this ancient, sacred place is randomly in the middle of a busy Roman piazza filled with modern life (and lots of cats, as it is a cat sanctuary).
I’ve come here randomly multiple times and hover for an uncomfortable amount of time to admit.
Let’s just say I’d been there about half an hour already today before our story begins, staring at the stones like a stalker, analyzing.
It fulfills me to stand there and stare. I don’t know why.
I only know I enjoy it, so I do it again and again.
She’d brought her three almost-grown kids with her (they looked high school and college age). They’d just arrived.
“What was the Largo di…” She paused.
“Torre Argentina,” I supplied. “It’s the excavated ruins of some Roman temples, plus the curia of the Theater of Pompey.”
Blank stares.
“It’s where Julius Caesar was assassinated.” I pointed to a specific stone. “Right there.”
They kept asking questions.
I kept answering.
Yes, we know it’s that spot because Augustus sealed off the chamber and raised a monument in the exact spot, in his honor, and the people excavating unexpectedly uncovered the monument.
No, it wasn’t just Brutus stabbing him; it was many senators, including Brutus.
Yes, it’s said by Suetonius he was stabbed twenty-three times, and he claimed only one of them was a mortal wound, according to a doctor who examined the body.
Yes, that in the middle is a temple dedicated to a goddess of fortune.
Oh, the Senate was meeting in the Curia that day because the regular Senate building was being expanded on Caesar’s orders.
Pompey—not Pompeii (they pronounced it ‘Pompeii’ in their question so I gently explained the difference)—was one of the first triumvirate in charge with Caesar, along with Crassus (I cannot believe I remembered the name of Crassus; no one ever remembers him, least of all me).
And then they became enemies and had a civil war and Pompey was assassinated four years before Caesar.
Friends, you must understand.
If you asked me, “Where are we?” anywhere, there is likely not a single place in this entire world I’d be better equipped and willing to supply an answer than at the Piazza Largo di Torre Argentina.
I have devoted an unreasonable amount of my life to this.
If we had a penny for each of the hours I have devoted to research and translation about this very spot on 15 March, 44 BCE, the total amount would solve world hunger.
It is an obsession of mine.
It is a great love.
I’ve no clue why I enjoy researching Julius Caesar’s assassination so much; I just always have.
The moment the son mentioned that he heard it wasn’t “Et tu, Brute” but instead something in Greek may well be one of the most exciting statements I have ever heard in my life, because it meant I could answer him thoroughly and didn’t even have to bring up this intensely interesting matter myself like the freak I am.
Someone could have randomly given me a thousand euros and I don’t think I’d have been as thrilled.
This was one of my favorite things.
This was a gift from God.
I explained, trying to rein in my excitement but failing completely, what were the exact Greek words and their translation, both literally and also the actual meaning behind the words.
About how deeply this conveyed Caesar’s pain at Brutus’s betrayal.
Why Caesar would have spoken in Greek instead of Latin here.
How over time historians and especially playwrights shifted to mentioning “Et tu, Brute” instead of “Kai su, teknon” and how it was a well-established deviation by the time Shakespeare picked it up.
I can barely believe this happened.
I would never have dreamed to contrive the possibility a family of four would visit the Largo di Torre Argentina at the exact time as me, strike up a conversation (I myself would never be the conversation starter with strangers unless absolutely necessary), and actually be interested in hearing about one of my favorite subjects for fifteen minutes straight.
How did they know to ask me?
How did this even happen?
I am still amazed.
I can ask for nothing more.
