Hugh O'Brian
Dick Sherman
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Assassination in Rome: Directed by Silvio Amadio. With Cyd Charisse, Hugh O'Brian, Mario Feliciani, Memmo Carotenuto. In this crime-thriller, Rome proves to be an unhappy destination for an American couple when the husband is kidnapped and his wife begins a desperate search for him.
- (215)
- Comedy, Crime, Mystery
- Silvio Amadio
- 1965-06-07
Italy. France. Spain. Languages. Italian. English. Assassination in Rome (Italian: Il segreto del vestito rosso, lit. 'The Secret of the Red Dress'; Spanish: El secreto de Bill North, lit. 'The Secret of Bill North') is a 1965 giallo film co-written and directed by Silvio Amadio .
- Overview
- Caesar’s Assassination Unleashes a Brutal Fight for Power
- Augustus Establishes the Roman Empire
- HISTORY Vault: Colosseum
Julius Caesar’s killers attempted to thwart a dictator. They inadvertently created an emperor.
By the time Julius Caesar stepped in front of the Roman Senate on the Ides of March in 44 B.C., the nearly 500-year-old Roman Republic had been ailing for years. Wealth inequality, political gridlock and civil wars had all weakened the republic in the century prior to Caesar’s ascension to power.
Caesar’s increasingly autocratic reign further threatened the republic. He bypassed the Senate on important matters, controlled the treasury and earned the personal loyalty of the republic’s army by pledging to give retiring soldiers property from public land or use his personal fortune to buy it himself, according to Edward Watts, author of Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell Into Tyranny. He emblazoned his image on coins and reserved the right to accept or reject election results for lower offices. As Caesar transacted public business from a gold-and-ivory throne, rumors swirled that he would declare himself king.
8 Incredible Roman Technologies
In the first weeks of 44 B.C., Caesar was proclaimed “dictator for life.” His life, though, wouldn’t last much longer.
Fearful that the concentration of absolute power in a single man threatened the republic’s democratic institutions, dozens of senators who called themselves the “Liberators” plotted to kill the dictator. On March 15 in 44 B.C., Caesar was stabbed 23 times by conspirators who believed themselves to be saviors of liberty and democracy. Instead, the daggers they thrust into Caesar dealt a fatal blow to the already wounded Roman Republic.
One of the assassination’s leading planners, Marcus Junius Brutus, had prepared to deliver a speech celebrating the Roman Republic’s restoration right after Caesar’s murder. He was shocked to find that outrage, rather than praise, greeted news of the dictator’s killing. If Caesar had been an autocrat, the lower and middle classes didn’t seem to mind as they benefitted from his radical reforms such as the cancellation of debts and adjustment of the tax code.
Instead of stabilizing the Roman Republic, the assassination plunged it into another civil war as Caesar’s supporters battled the assassins and then each other. Although former deputy Mark Antony positioned himself as Caesar’s rightful successor by delivering a powerful funeral oration, the slain ruler had pre-empted that outcome. In his will, Caesar had named his sickly, 18-year-old great-nephew Octavian as his primary heir and provided for his adoption.
Augustus Caesar
Having eliminated his rivals and seen the support given to Caesar by the masses, Octavian established absolute rule over the former republic and surpassed the power of his great-uncle. He approved of all candidates standing for election, while the powerless Senate rubber-stamped his decisions. By providing for soldiers’ retirements, he ensured their personal loyalty to him. Citizens in towns across Italy and the western Mediterranean were compelled to swear their personal loyalty to Octavian. Throughout Roman territories, coins, statues and even silverware bore his image.
The Senate in 27 B.C. bestowed the title “Augustus” upon Octavian, which according to Roman historian Cassius Dio signified “that he was more than human.” Augustus ruled as Rome’s first emperor—although he never took that title for himself. “He was a very shrewd politician," Strauss says. “He had a lot of tricks, and one of them was to pretend that what was happening wasn’t really happening. He said that he restored the republic and never used the terms dictator or king, instead calling himself Rome’s ‘first citizen.’”
When a crisis of flooding, famine and plague besieged Rome in 22 B.C., citizens did not agitate for a restoration of the republic, but instead locked up a group of senators and threatened to burn them alive if Augustus was not named dictator. They believed that Augustus alone could save them. The freedom they sought was one from war, hunger and chaos.
The Roman Empire is vividly brought to life through the lens of the Colosseum.
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Jul 25, 2023 · In this crime-thriller, Rome proves to be an unhappy destination for an American couple when the husband is kidnapped and his wife begins a desperate search for him with the help of a news editor.
- 99 min
- 24.6K
- DK Classics V
Jun 20, 2023 · But as of Tuesday, human visitors were allowed for the first time to descend and get a better glimpse of the site, believed to be where Julius Caesar was brutally assassinated by a group of...
Assassination in Rome. List. Prime Video. Rent Assassination in Rome on Prime Video, or buy it on Prime Video. Rated 4/5 Stars • 01/23/23. Silvio Amadio. Director. Hugh O'Brian. Dick...
- Mystery & Thriller
Assassination in Rome (1965) Full Cast & Crew. See agents for this cast & crew on IMDbPro. Directed by. Writing Credits (in alphabetical order) Cast (in credits order) Produced by. Music by. Cinematography by. Editing by. Production Design by. Set Decoration by. Makeup Department. Production Management. Second Unit Director or Assistant Director.
