this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2025
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Explanation: During Caesar's triumph through Rome after the end of the Civil War in 45 BCE, one of the People's Tribunes, Pontius Aquila, refused to stand, as was customary, as Caesar passed during the triumph. This enraged Caesar so much that he called out during the triumph, "Come then, Aquila, take back the republic from me!"
For several days afterwards, Caesar remained so salty that he would add, after making any promise, "That is, if Tribune Aquila will let me."
Pontius Aquila would later become one of Caesar's assassins.
Do we know why Aquila refused?
Probably a refusal to accept the legitimacy of Caesar's triumph, or Caesar's general victorious position after the civil war. Aquila may have been on the Pompeiian side.
It was very much a deliberate slight, but not much more than that. Like flipping a head of state off at their inauguration.