A quiz question · hard
How many of Caesar's 23 stab wounds did the physician Antistius identify as independently fatal?
The Antistius autopsy concluded only the second wound, to the chest, was independently fatal. The other 22 were either glancing or struck non-vital tissue. This is the first recorded autopsy in Western practice.
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The 23 Stab Wounds That Killed Julius Caesar in the Theatre of Pompey on 15 March 44 BCE and Started a 14-Year Civil War Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times by approximately 60 Roman senators in the curia attached to the Theatre of Pompey on the morning of 15 March 44 BCE. The post-mortem examination concluded that only one of the 23 wounds — the second, to the chest — was independently fatal. The assassination triggered the 14-year political-military struggle that produced Augustus's monarchy and ended the Roman Republic.
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