Julius Caesar is a play published in 1599 and written by the famed playwright William Shakespeare. Discussing concepts such as tyranny, the legitimacy of certain political assassinations, and naive idealism, Julius Caesar is a great play to enjoy.
The play begins with Flavius and Marullus, two officials, asking the citizens why they are celebrating on the streets. The citizens responded by saying they are honoring the return of Julius Caesar after his victory with Pompey. Flavius and Marullus are both outraged upon hearing the response: before Caesar, they worshipped Pompey and sent him off with happy gestures, only to suddenly change their loyalty after Caesar’s military victory (Pompey was killed: when he fled to Egypt, he was executed by the Egyptian king, as he didn't want to incur Caesar’s wrath). As Marullus stated, “Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft / Have you climb’d up to walls and battlements, / To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops, / Your infants in your arms, and there have sat / The live-long day, with patient expectation, / To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome: / Have you not made an universal shout, / That Tiber trembled underneath her banks, / To hear the replication of your sounds / Made in her concave shores? / And do you now put on your best attire? / And do you now cull out a holiday? / And do you now strew flowers in his way / That comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood?” After dispersing some of the plebeians, Flavius then tells Marullus that they should take down the decorations honoring Caesar. It is then revealed that it was the feast of Lupercal (a festival that was supposed to make women fertile), and Flavius clarifies, “It is no matter; / let no images / Be hung with Caesar’s trophies.” As Caesar moved into Rome, he was notified by a soothsayer to “beware the ides of March”; Caesar shook it off as a petty attempt to frighten him. The play then shifts to the perspective of Cassius and Brutus: Cassius is shown to be a manipulative schemer, as he is envious of Caesar and is also power-hungry, hence why he is the head of the conspiracy. Brutus, on the other hand, is portrayed to be open-minded and a lover of justice and the Roman Republic. Cassius plays on Brutus’s fears of a king ruling Rome, telling him repeatedly that Caesar is planning to make himself the emperor. He then slanders Caesar, telling Brutus how he didn't have much merit; on the other hand, he proved himself quite weak in dangerous situations, showing that he’s quite unworthy of ruling Rome. In his own words, “For once, upon a raw and gusty day, / The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, / Caesar said to me, ‘Darest thou, Cassius, now / Leap in with me into this angry flood, / And swim to yonder point?’ Upon the word / Accoutred as I was, I plunged in, / And bade him follow: so, indeed, he did. / The torrent roar’d; and we did buffet it / With lusty sinews, throwing it aside / And stemming it with hearts of controversy: / But ere we could arrive the point proposed, / Caesar cried, ‘Help me, Cassius, or I sink!’ / I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor, / Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder / The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber / Did I the tired Caesar: and this man / Is now become a god; and Cassius is / A wretched creature, and must bend his body, / If Caesar carelessly but nod on him.” He then reveals that when Caesar was sick in Spain, he had little fortitude and complained easily, disgusting him with his weakness: “Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans / Mark him, and write his speeches in their books, / Alas, it cried, ‘Give me some drink, Titinius,’ / As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me, / A man of such a feeble temper should / So get the start of the majestic world, / and bear the palm alone.”
Cassius proceeds by appealing to Brutus’s sense of honor: he tells him that Caesar isn’t any more qualified to rule than him. He also tells Brutus that his ancestor Brutus the Elder (an aristocrat who drove out the Tarquins/kings of Rome and ushered in the Roman Republic) would likewise disapprove of Caesar. Brutus, hearing all this, tells Cassius that while he trusts him and knows he wants the best for him, he will not listen to any more of his words for the time being, as he has already heard enough: “That you do love me, I am nothing jealous; / What you would work me to, I have some aim: / How I have thought of this, and of these times, / I shall recount hereafter; for this present, / I would not, so with love I might entreat you, / Be any further moved. What you have said, / I will consider; what you have to say, / I will with patience hear; and find a time / Both meet to hear and answer such high things. / Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this; / Brutus had rather be a villager / Than to repute himself a son of Rome / Under these hard conditions as this time / Is like to lay upon us.” Cassius congratulated himself, as a few words from him were enough to make Brutus passionate. Meanwhile, Julius Caesar speaks of Cassius, saying that he’s not to be trusted due to his conniving look, as well as his thinness (it makes him look like he’s willing to eat someone to nourish himself). Casca, another conspirator in the future assassination, talks with Brutus, telling him that Caesar was offered a crown by Antony: while he denied the crown, he made a great deal about it, and was offered it thrice. Regardless, he still refused the crown, much to the pleasure of the common people. Casca then tells Brutus that Marullus and Flavius have been “put to silence” (perhaps imprisoned, exiled, or stripped of their government positions) for “pulling scarfs off Caesar’s imagery,” showing the tremendous power that Caesar could exercise if he so desires. That night, Casca talks to Cicero: many wondrous things have happened. The Romans, being a superstitious people, believed that these strange events were indicators of some colossal future incident. As Casca described, “A common slave-you know him well by sight- / Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn / Like twenty torches join’d; and yet his hand, / Not sensible of fire, remain’d unscorcht. / Besides,-I ha’ not since put up my sword,- / Against the Capitol I met a lion, / Who glared upon me, and went surly by, / Without annoying me: and there were drawn / Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women, / Transformed with their fear; who swore they saw / Men, all in fire, walk up and down the streets. / And yesterday the bird of night did sit / Even at noonday upon the market-place, / Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies / Do so conjointly meet, let not men say, / ‘These are their reasons,-they are natural:’ / For, I believe, they are portentous things / Unto the climate that they point upon.” Cassius tells Casca that he interprets the strange phenomena as a sign that they should slay Caesar. He then tells Casca that if Caesar is indeed made the emperor, he will risk his life to assassinate him. If he fails, he reports that he’ll take his own life: “I know where I will wear this dagger, then; / Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius: / Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong; / Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat: / Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass / Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, / Can be retentive to the strength of spirit; / But life, being weary of these worldly bars, / Never lacks power to dismiss itself. / If I know this, know all the world besides, / That part of tyranny that I do bear / I can shake off at pleasure.” Casca adds that it is true that “every bondman in his own hand bears / The power to cancel his captivity.” Cassius tells Casca that some other Roman aristocrats had agreed to assassinate Caesar, but they need Brutus (who was regarded as honorable by the Roman masses), seeing how after the assassination, they require proof that they did so not out of personal gain, but out of love for the Republic (in reality and a historical context, they assassinated Caesar due to his populist measures - they didn't want to lose their wealth; they simply used the pretense of trying to restore the Republic to excuse their murder of him).
Cassius tells Cinna to throw a piece of parchment into Brutus’s balcony to make him their ally, and he agrees. Brutus, during the night, was restless: he was conflicted over Caesar. While he loved him, he loathed the idea of his becoming a king. He eventually finds the paper which Cinna left him, which read “‘Brutus, thou sleep’st; awake, and see thyself. / Shall Rome, … Speak, strike, redress!’- / ‘Brutus, thou sleep’st: awake!’- / Such instigations have been often dropt / where I have took them up. / … Shall Rome, stand under one man’s awe? What, Rome? / My ancestors did from the streets of Rome / The Tarquin drive, when he was call’d a king / … Am I entreated / To speak and strike? O Rome, I make thee promise, / If the redress will follow, thou receivst / Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus!” Not long after, Cassius and some of the other conspirators showed up at his front door. Brutus tells his servant Lucius to let them in. The conspirators enter Brutus’s house. They are: Casca, Cassius, Cinna, Decius, Metullus Cimber, and Trebonius. Brutus, understanding what was happening, joined the conspiracy out of a love for Rome’s republic. When they debate whether Cicero (famous as an orator) should be included in the conspiracy, they decide that it’s best that he doesn’t: while he’s quite old and will thereby give them more credence (the group is mostly composed of young people), Brutus mentioned that Cicero has a large ego, and “will never follow any thing / That other men begin.” When Cassius asks whether Antony (one of Caesar’s leading generals) should be assassinated with him, Brutus says that he shouldn’t, as he believed that Caesar was the main problem when it came to a potential dictatorship, not to mention that if they do slay him, they will look quite unjust to the public. In his own words, “Our course will seem too bloody, Gaius Cassius / To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs,- / Like wrath in death, and envy afterwards; / For Antony is but a limb of Caesar: / Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers, Gaius. / We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar; / And in the spirit of men there is no blood: / O, that we, then, could come by Caesar’s spirit, / And not dismember Caesar! / … Let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully; / Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods, / Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds; / And let our hearts, as subtle masters do, / Stir up their servants to an act of rage, / And after seem to chide ‘em. This shall make / Our purpose necessary, and not envious: / Which so appearing to the common eyes, / We shall be call’d purgers, not murderers. / And for Mark Antony, think not of him; / For he can do no more than Caesar’s arm / When Caesar’s head is off.” After deciding to not kill Antony, the assassins agree to lure Caesar into the Senate house to murder him, as they don’t want his allies getting in the way. When the assassins leave, Brutus’s wife, Portia, asks him why he was so restless recently, and correctly discerns that the cause was a mental, not a physical, issue. Brutus, moved by his wife’s words, agrees to tell her later that night of everything he has been thinking about and will do.
Later on, on the Ides of March, Caesar decided to stay home for the day, seeing how his wife Calphurnia had a nightmare regarding his death. Caesar also called for the augurers (priests who told fortunes based on the entrails of an animal) to perform a sacrifice, and he was told that the animal lacked a heart. While Caesar initially interpreted this as the gods chiding him for his cowardice, Calphurnia is able to persuade him to stay at home. However, Decius Brutus entered Caesar’ home, and tells him that the Senate was going to make him the king, and that if he doesn’t show up due to his wife’s dream (she dreamt that a statue of his was gushing blood while many Romans washed their hands in the blood), the Senate might decline. In his own words, “the senate have concluded / To give, this day, a crown to mighty Caesar. / If you shall send them word you will not come, / Their minds may change. Besides, it were a mock / Apt to be render’d, for some one to say, / ‘Break up the senate till another time, / When Caesar’s wife shall meet with better dreams.’ / If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper, / ‘Lo, Caesar is fraid’?’ / Pardon me, Caesar; for my dear dear love / To your proceeding bids me tell you this; / And reason to my love is liable.” Caesar, persuaded by Decius Brutus, decides that he should go to Rome, seeing how Calphurnia’s fears seemed to be ill-founded. Artemidorus, an official loyal to Caesar, tried to contact him as he made his way to the Senate house by attempting to give him a letter that warns him of the conspirators: “Caesar, beware of Brutus; take heed of Cassius; come not near Casca; have an eye to Cinna; trust not Trebonius; mark well Metellus Cimber; Decius Brutus loves thee not: thou hast wrong’d Caius Ligarius. There is but one mind in all these men, and it is best against Caesar. If thou beest not immortal, look about you: security gives way to conspiracy. The mighty gods defend thee! Thy lover, Artemidorus.’” Unfortunately for Caesar, he didn't receive the letter: Artemidorus was petitioning him the same time as the other conspirators, and didn't want them to know that he was working against them in fear of his life. After telling Caesar that the letter had direct implications for him, Caesar tried to show his magnanimity towards the common people by telling him that whatever impacts him will be read last, sealing his fate (he also laughed at the soothsayer before, telling her that the Ides of March have come - she tells them that while the day has arrived, it’s still not over yet). Once Caesar is in the Senate house, the assassins surround him while pretending to beg him to allow the brother of Metellus Cimber back from exile. Caesar responds by telling them that their efforts are for naught, as he views himself as superior to the average person, telling Metellus Cimber: “These couchings and these lowly courtesies / Might fire the blood of ordinary men, / And turn pre-ordinance and first decree / Into the law of children. Be not fond, / To think that Caesar bears such rebel blood / That will be thaw’d from the true quality / With that which melteth fools; I mean, sweet words, / Low-crooked curt’sies, and base spaniel-fawning. / Thy brother by decree is banished: / If thou dost bend, and pray, and fawn for him, / I spurn thee like a cur out of my way. / Know, Caesar doth not wrong; nor without cause / Will he be satisfied.” Cimber continues to plead for his banished brother, and Marcus Brutus and Cassius aid him. Caesar, unrelenting, tells them to stop: “I am constant as the northern star, / Of those true-fixt and resting quality / There is no fellow in the firmament. / … But there’s but one in all doth hold his place: / So in the world,-’tis furnish well with men, / And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive; / Yet in the number I do know but one / That unassailable holds on his rank, / Unshaked of motion: and that I am he, / Let me a little show it, even in this,- / That I was constant Cimber should be banisht, / And constant do remain to keep him so.” The assassins then take out their daggers and stab Caesar to death. After committing the murder, the assassins claim that they have restored liberty, and that tyranny was supposedly dead. Brutus tells the servant of Antony to go get his master, and promises that no harm will be done to him. The servant obeys, and Antony enters the scene. Brutus tells him that the assassins wish no ill on him, and did what they had to do for democracy. Antony, complying, shakes the hand of each of the assassins, and says that he would harbor no grudge against them if he is allowed to make a speech at the funeral of Caesar. While Brutus gives him permission, Cassius warns him that his assent can be quite dangerous, as there is no telling what he might say. Brutus tells him that he shouldn’t worry about that, and leaves with all the conspirators. Antony, completely alone, states that Caesar shall have his vengeance, and that his death will cause a civil war. He also reveals that he in fact loathes the assassins, and is going to use his speech at Caesar’s funeral to turn the public against them: “O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, / That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! / Thou art the ruins of the noblest man / That ever lived in the tide of times. / Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood! / Over thy wounds now do I prophesy,- / Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips, / To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue,- / A curse shall light upon the limbs of men; / Domestic fury and fierce civil strife / Shall cumber all the parts of Italy; / Blood and destruction shall be so in use, / And dreadful objects so familiar, / That mothers shall but smile when they behold / Their infants quarter’d with the hands of war; / All pity choked with custom of fell deeds: / And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge, / With Ate by his side come hot from hell, / Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice / Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war; / That this foul deed shall smell above the earth / With carrion men, groaning for burial.”
At the funeral of Caesar, Brutus was the first to make a speech. He said that he loved Caesar, but killed him as he loved Rome more. He assures the audience that he is completely loyal to Rome, and will kill himself for his country when the time comes. The citizens, pleased with his response, hail him as a hero. Brutus then leaves, and Antony takes the stage. In his speech, he implicitly yet damningly denounces the assassins, stating that Caesar didn't want to make himself a king, not to mention that he had treated the citizens extremely well (and indeed so from a historical standpoint as well), thereby rendering it unlikely, even if he had become a dictator, to oppress and abuse them. This is seen quite clearly in Caesar’s will, which gave some of his private properties to the public for them to enjoy, not to mention that he gave each citizen some money (that he got by raiding other countries). Antony showed them the mangled corpse of Caesar, taking care to demonstrate the numerous wounds on the body: “Look, in this place ran Cassius’ dagger through: / See what a rent the envious Casca made: / Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb’d; / And, as he plucky his cursed steel away, / Mark how the blood of Caesar follow’d it, / As rushing out of doors, to be resolved / If Brutus so unkindly knockt, or no; / For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar’s angel: / Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him! / This was the most unkindest cut of all; / For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, / Ingratitude, more strong than traitor’s arms, / Quite vanquisht him: then burst his mighty heart; / And, in his mantle muffling up his face, / Even at the base of Pompey’s statua, / Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell. / O, what a fall was there, my countrymen! / Then I, and you, and all of us fell down, / Whilst bloody treason flourisht over us.” He then reads Caesar’s will, which “To every Roman citizen he gives, / To every several man, seventy-five drachmas” and “hath left you [the public] all his walks, / His private arbours, and new-planted orchards / On this side Tiber; he hath left them you, / And to your heirs for ever,-common pleasures, / To walk abroad, and recreate yourselves. / Here was a Caesar! when comes such another?” The citizens, hearing of Caesar’s will, are enraged and start a riot, trying to find and kill the conspirators, as well as traveling to burn their houses. In one instance, a man named Cinna (who was a poet) was murdered just for sharing the same name as Cinna the conspirator. Antony eventually meets with the other members of the Second Triumvirate (group created to have a monopoly over power) - Lepidus (leader of Caesar’s cavalry) and Octavius (later to be known as Augustus, the first emperor of Rome). During their meeting, they began sentencing people to death to prevent themselves from being betrayed by others and to strike fear in the hearts of their enemies. In one instance, Lepidus’s brother was agreed by the three of them to be executed. In another, the son of Antony’s sister was also decreed to be put to death. Antony states that they should revise Caesar’s will, as they could use some of the money he allotted to the Roman citizens to bolster their military strength. When Lepidus leaves to see that the will is changed, Antony and Octavius say that they should demote him and jointly rule.
After Antony gave his speech, Brutus, Cassius, and the other conspirators escaped and created their own army to face off against that of Rome. At their military camp, Cassius accused Brutus of wronging him. Brutus, prudent, tells him that if they are to have an argument, it shouldn’t be out in the open, seeing that they don’t want their soldiers to see them fighting, as that would damage their morale; they proceed to discuss the current situation in their tent. Cassius accuses Brutus of bribery, and Brutus retorts, saying that he is greedy and has sold public offices to the incompetent for money. They come close to fighting, as Brutus mocks Cassius for whatever bravery he may possess, and also tells him that he was innocent of bribery: “There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats; / For I am arm’d so strong in honesty, / That they pass by me as the idle wind, / which I respect not. I did send to you / For certain sums of gold, which you denied me;- / For I can raise no money by vile means: / By heaven, I had rather coin my heart, / And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring / From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash / By any indirection;- I did send / To you for gold to pay my legions, / … When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous, / To lock such rascal counters from his friends, / Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts; / Dash him to pieces!” Cassius, exasperated at the situation, shouts that he has been utterly deserted: “Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come, / Revenge yourself alone on Cassius, / For Cassius is a-weary of the world; / Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother; / Checkt like a bondman; all his faults observed, / Set in a note-book, learn’d, and conn’d by rote, / To cast into my teeth.” Brutus apologizes, and tells him the reason he’s so irritable is that Portia committed suicide by ingesting poison - she was severely stressed by how Antony and Octavius were amassing ever more power, and she missed her husband. Cassius expresses his sympathy, and calls for wine to drink with Brutus. They come to discuss the situation, and they learn that Octavius and Antony were coming towards them with their army at Philippi. Furthermore, it was revealed by a general named Messala that Octavius and Antony executed one hundred senators to dissuade treachery and dissent (Brutus alleges that seventy were put to death), and that Cicero was one of them. Cassius and Brutus debate the situation, and Cassius says that they should remain where they are and let the opposing enemy come to them, as they will conserve more energy that way. Brutus admits that while his justification is good, he has better ones for meeting the opposing army: the native peoples don’t like them, and are likely to join the army of Antony and Octavius. Therefore, if they confront them early, their forces will not grow to an even larger amount. Furthermore, Brutus alleges that their side is ready to fight, and shouldn’t wait, as things could only go downhill from that point: “Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe; / The enemy increaseth every day; / We, at the height, are ready to decline. / There is a tide in the affairs of men, / Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; / Omitted, all the voyage of their life / Is bound in shallows and in miseries. / On such a full sea are we now afloat; / And we must take the current when it serves, / Or lose our ventures.” Cassius, hearing this, relents and states that they will meet the army of Octavius and Antony the next morning.
Brutus, retiring to his tent, sees the ghost of Caesar, who warns him that he will be seeing him again at Philippi. The next day, the plans are brought to fruition, and they go to meet the enemy army. Before fighting, they have a parley where nothing is achieved - Antony and Octavius exchange insults with Brutus and Cassius before the battle commences. While the parley occurred, Cassius made clear his discontent, telling Brutus that if he followed his advice and slain Antony, they wouldn’t be in that desperate situation. Brutus also told Octavius that he wasn’t honorable enough to die by his hand. Octavius, having had enough, leaves in a rage with Antony to prepare for battle. The battle begins, and ferocious fighting occurs. Cassius and Brutus lead different sections of the army. During the battle, Cassius believed that his “best friend” Titinius was surrounded and captured by the opposing army. Ashamed of himself for watching it, he tells his slave Pindarus to help him commit suicide: “In Parthia did I take thee prisoner; / And then I swore thee, saving of thy life, / That whatsoever I bid thee do, / Thou shouldst attempt it. Come now, keep thine oath; / Now be a freeman; and, with this good sword, / That ran through Caesar’s bowels, search this bosom. / Stand not to answer: here, take thou the hilts; / And, when my face is cover’d, as ‘tis now, / Guide thou the sword.-Caesar, thou art revenged, / Even with the sword that kill’d thee.” Pindarus, after doing the unpleasant task, leaves. Titinius and Messala come across the scene: Titinius had not in fact been captured. When they saw his corpse, they were very discouraged: Messala noted that news of Cassius’s death would be as friendly to the ears of Brutus as “piercing steel” and “darts envenomed.” When he left to notify Brutus, Titinius, sad at having lost his comrade, kills himself too with Cassius’s sword, but not before mentioning how the people who surrounded him were his comrades who put a laurel wreath (symbolic of victory) on his head to reward him for his bravery: “Why didst thou send me forth, brave Cassius? / Did I not meet thy friends? and did they not / Put on my brows this wreath of victory, / And bid me give it thee? Didst thou not hear their shouts? / Alas, thou hast misconstrued every thing! / But, hold thee, take this garland on thy brow; / … Come, Cassius’ sword, and find Titinius’ heart.” After taking his own life, Messala and Brutus and some other allies found his body. Brutus notes the disastrous situation, remarking, “O Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet! / Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords / In our own proper entrails.” He shows his respect for Cassius and Titinius with his words, and instructs for their bodies to be brought to another camp (Thasos), seeing how it would be demoralizing to mourn in the midst of a battle (the battle wasn’t over yet: the conclusion would be decided relatively soon, however). That afternoon, Brutus’s army fought that of Antony and Octavius. During the battle, Brutus was almost captured, but Lucilius, one of Brutus’s allies, saves him from being seized by claiming that he was Brutus: the soldiers quickly grabbed him and told Antony to come over. When Antony sees him, Lucilius tells him that he will never take Brutus alive. Antony remarks that Lucilius could be a valuable ally seeing his loyalty, and orders for him to be kept alive and to be granted good treatment to sway him to join his side: “This is not Brutus, friend; but, I assure you, / A prize no less in worth: keep this man safe, / Give him all kindness: I had rather have / Such men my friends than enemies.”
The battle saw the defeat of Brutus’s army. Knowing that capture was imminent, he asks for four people, Dardanius, Clitus, Strato, and Volumnius, to help him commit suicide (he wants them to hold the sword while he impales himself on it). Of the four, only Strato agrees to help him, as the other three didn't want to play a part in someone whom they knew and respected (ex. Volumnius had gone to school with Brutus). As Brutus committed suicide, he asks for Caesar to rest in peace, as he stated that he killed him only out of altruism for Rome: “Caesar, now be still: / I kill’d not thee with half so good a will.” When Antony and Octavius came across Brutus’s body (with Messala as a prisoner), Strato tells them that Brutus has ended his life, rendering him free from whatever Antony and Octavius may do to him: “The conquerors can but make a fire of him; / For Brutus only overcame himself, / And no man else hath honour by his death.” Octavius states that Brutus’s servants will be spared their lives, including Strato. Antony states, “This was the noblest Roman of them all: / All the conspirators, save only he, / Did that they did in envy of great Caesar; / He only, in a general honest thought, / And common good to all, made one of them. / His life was gentle; and the elements / So mixt in him, that Nature might stand up / And say to all the world, ‘This was a man!’” The play ends with the following sentences of Octavius: “According to his virtue let us use him, / With all respect and rites of burial. / Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie, / Most like a soldier, order’d honourably.- / So, call the field to rest: and let’s away, / To part the glories of this happy day.”
Read it online:
Personal thoughts:
Julius Caesar is a fantastic play by William Shakespeare. It includes powerful conflicts and moving characters who are mostly realistic, making it a delight to read. However, as expected, this play isn’t historically accurate: as stated before, the assassins most likely were heavily influenced by envy, greed, and avarice when they murdered Caesar, using their notion that they were “saving” the Roman Republic (which was largely gone by that point, as extreme income inequality and the oligarchical structure rendered the republic all but dead) as an effective excuse for the assassination. If you’re interested in the death of Julius Caesar, I encourage you to read The Assassination of Julius Caesar by Michael Parenti and my corresponding summary. I strongly recommend Julius Caesar to anyone interested in plays, Shakespeare, moving conflicts, and interesting dialogue.
Get the book: