As 15 March is an especially meaningful date for Hungarians, we tend to forget that something else had also happened on this spring day: Julius Caesar was stabbed to death on the Ides of March by a crowd of conspirators.

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.” (Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar)

According to the Ancient Roman historian Flavius Eutropius, more than sixty people participated in the assassination. Caesar was stabbed 23 times. His tragic death wasn’t only a historically significant turning point, but it was also a milestone in the field of forensics: the autopsy performed on his body was possibly the first recorded report of medical knowledge to a homicide investigation as well as it was the very first time when a pathologist gave an opinion as an expert witness.