It's interesting to me that, in trying to defend their Republic from tyranny, Julius Caesar's murderers actually set in motion the destruction of that very Republic. Certainly, they must have felt that the ends were going to justify the means, only to discover later how very wrong they were. Most of them would not live to see Octavius crown himself as Augustus Caesar, founding the Roman Empire on the ashes of the Republic.
Beware the Ides of March, indeed.