Cassius was just a murdering scumbag, and got what he deserved. That’s more than can be said for the Gracchi, who were beaten to death by their fellow Senators and their bodies thrown into the Tiber. Caesar was a reformer, Cassius et al were elitist reactionaries.
Oh, I generally agree.
Not that I’m such a huge fan of JC. I think Octavian was a much cannier politician. He reminds me of Reagan to some extent, who said it’s amazing what you can get done if you don’t care who gets the credit. JC’s assassins killed him basically because he flaunted his (real) superiority over them as a way of inflating his own ego. Octavian didn’t have that egomaniac urge, or if he did was able to keep it well hidden. He was interested in the reality of power, not the appearance.
The later Roman Republic resembles nothing quite so much as a mafia state. Warlords using the resources of the State, including its army, to plunder at will across the world, and then use those resources to fight each other for control of the State.
The Empire came as a huge relief to everybody but the tiny number who say themselves as “dons.”