I've been reading about Cicero (both his life and letters), and I was pondering how fascinating it is that Brutus, Cassius & Co. apparently planned nothing after the assassination of Caesar, but simply figured that the Republic would, somehow, return. One of the points Anthony Everett makes is that Cicero, on the afternoon of the Ides, joined others who met with the "liberators" at the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus and tried to persuade Brutus and Cassius, as praetors, to convene the Senate, announce what they had done, and essentially 'take over' the government.

Of course, to do so, they would have had to ignore (a) Antony, the co-consul and (b) Dolabella, who was to take the consular position after Caesar left for Parthia, but wasn't YET Consul.

So, the conspirators refused, and instead, sent a message to Antony to convene the senate to talk about what they had done. All very proper and mos maoirum. And a fatal error, as even Cicero saw at the time.

It seems to me in every way this is a tremendously significant choice. For 60 years, action had been stymied - whether action FOR or against reform - because of an adherence to "how it's always been done" that was becoming a straitjacket for the Republican government's taking any new action to address new problems. Possibly, if Brutus and Cassius had said "ok, we're taking over the government, calling new elections, getting rid of the generals who are currently running the country with their personal legions behind them," there was a chance that things might actually have reached a 'tipping point' where the Republic COULD have returned.

To permit Antony that extra 48 hours to get his legions in order, his plans in order, Caesar's fortune, Caesar's 'memoranda,' and basically entrench himself as the generalissimo still standing, was a horrific error, tactically and strategically, if the 'liberators' actually wanted a viable Republic to return.

And after that, of course, it was downhill all the way.

So my question to our group is - WAS there any realistic way that Brutus and Cassius could have dealt with the assassination that would have returned power in the Republic to the Senate, and away from the armies?