On the vast rectangular square now called Largo di Torre Argentina, not far from the Capitoline Hill, lie the ruins of the Area Sacra, the sacred precinct of the Campus Martius. Archaeologists have located the Curia of Pompey there, where Julius Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC.

Shortly before, the Senate had appointed Julius Caesar dictator for life, a decision some senators opposed. They believed the regime would lead to tyranny and that Caesar would have himself crowned king of Rome.

The assassination of Julius Caesar was the result of a conspiracy by Roman senators who called themselves the Liberatores, and whose most renowned leaders were Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, and Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus.

After Caesar's death, a period of great instability began in Rome, a period that seemed to end with the entry of the triumvirs into Rome in November 43 BC, followed by the assassination of Cicero in Campania.