When the knives are out for politicians it can mean figurative — and literal — death

All politicians know the expression “beware the ides of March”, a warning that a political comeuppance awaits those who feel secure in power. Today is the ides of March, the anniversary of the assassination of Roman leader Gaius Julius Caesar, stabbed to death in 44BC.

Painting 'The Death of Caesar' (Morte di Cesare) by Vincenzo Camuccini, circa 1798.

OVER the past few years there have been some reminders of how nasty politics can be. The six-month anniversary of Tony Abbot’s “knifing” by Malcolm Turnbull was marked by Abbott being mobbed by supporters in his electorate, while Turnbull has been contemplating springing an early election.

Former treasurer Peter Costello claimed Bob Hawke figuratively danced on Paul Keating’s grave. More ominously, US presidential hopeful Donald Trump was threatened by a podium invader at a rally.

All of these politicians would know the expression “beware the ides of March”, a warning that a political comeuppance awaits even those who feel secure in power. Today is the ides of March, the anniversary of the assassination of Roman leader Gaius Julius Caesar, stabbed to death by Roman senators in 44BC.

Painting of The Death of Caesar (Morte di Cesare) by Vincenzo Camuccini, circa 1798, depicts the assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar at the foot of a statue of Pompey in 44BC.

Caesar had taken power in 49BC after a civil war and had been made dictator for life, making many enemies by offending those who believed he was trying to make himself a king. Caesar had also decided not to execute those who had supported his opponent, Pompey the Great, in the civil war, allowing them the freedom to conspire against him.

Under the nominal leadership of Marcus Junius Brutus, but driven largely by Gaius Cassius Longinus, disaffected senators planned an assassination. On the ides (the middle day) of March in 44BC they cornered Caesar during a meeting of the senate, which was being held at a theatre built by Pompey. Caesar slumped to his death at the foot of a statue of Pompey. A new civil war erupted that resulted in Caesar’s nephew and adopted son Octavius becoming the first Roman emperor, taking on the name Augustus.

Portrait of Alessandro de Medici by Jacopo Pontormo, painted in 1534.

Since Caesar’s time the original ides of March has been a warning to politicians who ignore their enemies. Many of the emperors ignored the lessons of Caesar’s demise and around 30 of them were assassinated.

During the era of the Florentine republic in Italy, when the Medici family dominated the nominally elected position of leader of the republic, assassination was again in the air.

Leader Lorenzo de Medici (later known as “the Magnificent”) escaped an assassination attempt during Easter services in 1478. It had been launched by rival families vying for the leadership. Lorenzo’s great grandson Alessandro, installed as ruler of Florence in 1531 after a period of regency under a cardinal, made too many enemies with his sexual excesses, greed and his push for absolute power. He was assassinated in 1537 by his cousin, who lured Alessandro to his home with promises of a sexual encounter.

The assassination of French President Marie Francois Sadi Carnot in 1894 as depicted by newspaper Le Petit Journal.

Politics in Egypt at the beginning of the 20th century could be a dangerous business. Prime Minister Boutros Ghali (grandfather of UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali) who came to office in 1908 was perceived as showing bias to British soldiers during a trial over an incident from 1906, when the soldiers shot a villager who tried to stop them using their pigeons as targets for sport.

More generally, Ghali was seen as conciliatory to the British who occupied Egypt and so Ibrahim Nassif al-Wardani, a member of an opposition nationalist party, took matters into his own hands and shot the prime minister dead in 1910 as he left the foreign ministry.

He would not be the last Egyptian PM to be assassinated, in 1948 Mahmud Fahmi Nokrashi was shot dead after he outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood.

French president Paul Doumer was assassinated in 1932.

In France president Marie-Francois-Sadi Carnot had overcome scandals and was popular with the public, but had enemies. The government’s passing of repressive laws in response to attacks by anarchists inspired Sante Geronimo Caserio to plunge a knife into Carnot’s chest after the president had delivered a speech at a banquet for an exposition in Lyon in 1894, killing the leader. Caserio was later executed by guillotine.

Although Caserio’s motives were obvious, not so obvious were the reasons behind the assassination of Radical Party French president Paul Doumer.

The president was at a book fair in 1932 when he was shot by a mentally unstable Russian immigrant named Paul Gorguloff. The president died the next day. Gorguloff later claimed he committed the murder because of France’s failure to adequately support the fight against the Bolsheviks in 1917.

Originally published as When the knives are out for politicians it can mean figurative — and literal — death