His next plan was to launch an invasion of the Parthian Empire, the other great power of the period, which had, like the Republic, vastly expanded over the previous two centuries.

Caesar sought to avenge the disaster of Carrhae in 53 BC, when the Parthians soundly defeated an invading army led by Crassus.

[6] Afterward, occasional clashes in border regions continued, though Parthian raids into Syria and Cilicia were largely repelled by the Romans.

[10][b] As the Roman Republic in 45 BC was still politically divided after the civil war, Marcus Cicero tried to lobby Caesar to postpone the Parthian invasion and to solve domestic problems instead.

[13] After a victorious campaign he would have, as Plutarch wrote, "completed this circuit of his empire, which would then be bounded on all sides by the ocean"[14] and effectively achieved world domination as the Romans understood it.

[12] Caesar may have also wished to heal the rift from the civil war or to distract from it by reminding the populace of Rome of the threat of a neighbouring empire.

[17] Historian Nic Fields argued that Caesar's plan was a "grandiose campaign" backed by "breathtaking self-assurance", with the dictator seemingly being more inspired by his own comparatively limited military experience with eastern enemies than the reality on the ground.

[17] In 46 and 45, two supporters of Caesar, Titus Carisius and Lucius Valerius Acisculus, also struck denarii with eastern symbols, such as Sol and the sphinx, which may allude to the planned campaign.

[3] Although he implies that Caesar's goal was an expansion of the empire, not just its stabilization,[5] Plutarch describes a bolder campaign by writing that once Parthia had been subdued, the army would move through the Caucasus, attack Scythia and return to Italy after it had conquered Germania.

[29] Buszard's reading of Parallel Lives also interprets Plutarch as trying to use Caesar's future plans as a case study in the error of unbridled ambition.

[16][32] The assassination occurred on 15 March 44 BC on the day that the senate was to debate granting Caesar the title of king for the war with Parthia.