The assassination of Julius Caesar on March 15, 44BC is one of the most notorious events in history. You may be familiar with a version of events in William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar. But here are 10 things you may not know about one of the world's most famous political murders.

1. Thanks to Shakespeare the stark warning of the soothsayer, "Beware the ides of March," means that people always remember March 15.

2. Julius Caesar suffered 23 stab wounds on the Ides of March but only one of them, the second stab wound he received to the breast, was fatal to the 55-year-old. In his book The Death of Caesar: The Story of History’s Most Famous Assassination military historian Barry Strauss, says that the problem was that many of the estimated 60 conspirators were amateurs at murder. “Very few soldiers, even good ones, have what it takes to stab a man to death,” Strauss writes. “It takes sheer physical strength and a certain brutality to drive a dagger through a man’s flesh.” Some of the stab wounds hit rib cage bone. Excruciatingly painful but not fatal.

3. The conspirators waited until Caesar took his seat in his golden chair for the tribunal of the Senate at Teatro di Pompeo, which meant, cunningly, that some were in a position to approach him from behind and stab him in the back. Mark Antony was deliberately kept in a long conversation outside the room to stop him from coming to Caesar's aid. Caesar had an entourage that included former soldiers and axe-wielding gladiators but they were not allowed inside the Senate, so he had no bodyguards.