It’s unknown if the historical Julius Caesar uttered the same words ascribed to him by William Shakespeare in the famous play named after him, but just like in the play Caesar was betrayed by his close associate Marcus Brutus. After a victorious military campaign, Julius (Caesar was title) took too many honors for himself — or so felt the sixty of so conspirators that infiltrated the Senate with daggers in hand.

On this day, March 15, in 044 B.C. Julius Caesar was stabbed, by some accounts, as many as 23 times, on the floor of the Senate building. To Brutus, according to legend, he said “You too, my child?”

In Shakespeare’s famous play Caesar may be the title character, but Brutus is character in focus. Caesar appears in only three scenes, and is killed at the beginning of the third act. Marcus Brutus has to balance out his friendship with the man he is about to slay with demands of honor, duty and patriotism.