‘The Tragedy of Julius Caesar’ – “Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus…”

‘The Tragedy of Julius Caesar’  – “Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus…”

“Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world

Like a Colossus, and we petty men

Walk under his huge legs and peep about

To find ourselves dishonourable graves.”

There are many reasons why Shakespeare’s ‘The Tragedy of Julius Caesar’ is a great play. It is a very innovative play which does not shy away from plot complications but conversely embraces the cheap thrills of deaths, blood, gore and omens. It was written and performed probably in 1599 and was probably performed in the newly built Globe Theatre. It is a wonderful mix of tragedy and historical drama. The death of Julius Caesar occurs early in the play and it builds towards the Act Five climax where Cassius dies when he orders his own servant to kill him. On a macro level, the play centres around the attempt of Cassius and others to keep the Republic of Rome from becoming an Empire. The play is set in 44BC and has two protagonists (Brutus and Cassius) and two antagonists (Anthony and Octavius). Although the play shifts its perspective many times, the most sustained perspective on the events that unfold is that of Brutus who eventually kills himself with his own sword.

The play opens in a street in Rome where the tribunes, Flavius and Murellus, try to control crowds who want to celebrate while watching Caesar’s victory procession through Rome after his recent defeat of Pompey. They want the workmen to return to work and they discuss how Caesar’s victory does not even deserve a triumph because it did not involve conquering any foreign lands. They disperse the crowds and try to mitigate the frenzied support for Julius Caesar arguing that:

“These growing feathers pluck'd from Caesar's wing

Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,

Who else would soar above the view of men

And keep us all in servile fearfulness.”

Then Shakespeare has the legendary Caesar enter with Antony, Calpurnia, Portia, Decius, Cicero, Brutus, Cassius and Casca. He is initially portrayed as both a majestic but slightly vain figure. They encounter a Soothsayer along the way who utters the now famous words of warning to Caesar for him to “Beware the ides of March.” Antony is asked by Caesar to touch Caesar’s wife Calpurnia before he does the ceremonial run as superstition deems that this will cure barrenness in a woman. Caesar moves off with the procession and Brutus and Cassius linger and talk.

When questioned by Cassius why Brutus has seemed distant of late, Brutus reveals that his mind has been at war with itself. Cassius reminds Brutus of how highly respected he is. When they hear people shouting they fear that the common people want to make Caesar their king. Brutus shows reservations even though he loves Caesar. Cassius points out that “I was born as free as Caesar, so were you.” Cassius also points out Caesar’s predisposition to fits and seizures. Cassius points out that Caesar should not be treated like a God. Brutus agrees to meet with Cassius to discuss ideas surrounding Caesar. Caesar and the others re-enter and he makes some comments regarding his mistrust of Cassius because Cassius thinks and reads too much as does not indulge himself in plays and music.  

“Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;

He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.”

Caesar reinforces his mistrust of Cassius directly to Anthony. Caesar and his entourage then exit.

After Caesar departs, Brutus and Cassius ask Casca what happened with the procession and the crowd and Casca relates how Antony three times offered a crown to Caesar but he refused the crown and eventually fell into a fit (an epileptic fit) near the end.

Alone, Cassius reveals that although he thinks Brutus noble, he hopes that Brutus can be seduced to join the fight against Caesar. Cassius decides to write fake documents showing popular support for Brutus and intends to throw these documents into Brutus house that very night.

Soon after, Casca and Cicero meet and discuss a number of strange natural phenomenon which seem to be bad omens. Casca finally declares: “Indeed it is a strange-disposèd time…” Then Cicero, warns that he feels that it is not a good time for Caesar to be outside for too long.

Cassius enters and Casca and him discuss the perilous state that the government seems in. Cassius uses an analogy to compare this “dreadful night” with Caesar himself. Casca then expresses the view that the senate plans to make Caesar kign the very next day. In response, Cassius draws his dagger and declares that he has ways to control a tyrant such as Caesar. We see Cassius embrace what Casca calls “…the part of men to fear and tremble…” as his plot unfolds. Then a co-conspirator called Cinna appears and Cassius reveals that getting Brutus on board will be the key part of the plan to stop Caesar. He talks to Cinna and tells him: “

“… good Cinna, take this paper,

And look you lay it in the praetor's chair,

Where Brutus may but find it…

See Brutus at his house: three parts of him

Is ours already, and the man entire

Upon the next encounter yields him ours…

His countenance, like richest alchemy,

Will change to virtue and to worthiness.”

‘The Tragedy of Julius Caesar’ Act Two – “Between the acting of a dreadful thing and the first motion, all the interim is like a phantasma, or a hideous dream…”

I think that an audience identifies more with Brutus because we see him struggle over his decision to be part of the conspiracy to kill Julius Caesar. Act Two covers the time from before dawn (around 6.30am in March) until about 9am in the morning. We catch Brutus in his garden, who having decided that it is certain that Caesar will be crowned king, has decided that Caesar will have to die. Brutus thinks that although he has never seen Caesar corrupted by power that this new found power will corrupt him and he starts to think of Caesar:

“…as a serpent's egg

Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow mischievous,

And kill him in the shell.”

Cassius’ anonymous letter which was thrown in near a window, is brought in by Lucius. Brutus’s servant. It challenges Brutus to finally act:

“'Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake, and see thyself.

Shall Rome, & c. Speak, strike, redress!

Shall Rome stand under one man's awe?’”

Cassius’ deceptive letter works and believes that the people of Rome are urging him through this letter to act of their behalf. And then Cassius and his co-conspirators Casca, Decius, Cinna, Metellus, and Trebonius fortuitously arrive at Brutus’ door.

Brutus is introduced to the others and Cassius proposes that they swear an oath to one another but Brutus dismisses this and claims that their cause is horrible yet noble enough to bind them together. They then get down to the nitty gritty of the plan by discussing whether Cicero should be solicited into their conspiracy since he would bring greater support for their actions. Brutus sees that Cicero would not follow any plan unless he came up with it himself. Cassius then puts forward that they should kill Mark Anthony as well but Brutus sees that this would make the killing of Caesar seem as noble as Brutus believes it to be and suggests that Mark Anthony is nothing without Caesar:

“Our course will seem too bloody, Caius 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 us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius…

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.”

Then Cassius reveals that Caesar may not even come to the Capitol later that day because of dire warnings about “the ides of March”. Decius believes that he can get Caesar there through appealing to his vanity. As they depart. Now that the die is cast, Brutus final words of advice are:

“Let not our looks put on our purposes,

But bear it as our Roman actors do,

With untired spirits and formal constancy:

And so good morrow to you every one.”

The conspirators leave and Brutus’ wife, Portia, appears in the garden. She enquires why Brutus has “stole from my bed” and she pleads with him to tell her what is disturbing him. Brutus thanks her for being such a “true and honorable wife” and then asks her to hide herself when there is a knock at the door. The sickly Ligarius enters, anxious to discover whether Brutus’ motivations for involvement in the conspiracy to kill Caesar are noble and honorable. Brutus assures him they are and they leave. 

Thunder and lightning announce the early morning at the Caesar household. Caesar sees nature’s signs, the dreams of his wife Calpurnia and strange events like a lioness who gave birth in the street as ominous signs. When a servant enters and says that the augurs (fortune-tellers) suggest that Caesar should stay at home because when they went to read the entrails of an animal, they found no heart, Caesar finally concedes to Calpurnia’s demands and decides that he will not go to the Senate that day.

The Decius enters to collect Caesar for the senate. Caesar says that he will stay home and reveals part of Calpurnia’s dream where Caesar’s statue starts spouting blood like a fountain and Romans wash their hands in it. Calpurnia says this reveals that Caesar will be killed. Decius disputes this interpretation saying:

“This dream is all amiss interpreted;

It was a vision fair and fortunate:

Your statue spouting blood in many pipes,

In which so many smiling Romans bathed,

Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck

Reviving blood, and that great men shall press

For tinctures, stains, relics and cognizance.

This by Calpurnia's dream is signified.”

Going further, Decius reveals that the Senate will indeed give Caesar the crown that day and says that Caesar would lose the senate and the people’s support if he was swayed to not turn up due to the fears and dreams of a woman Caesar calls for his robes and when mark Anthony enters, they all depart for the Capital.

Meanwhile, some forces seem to be moving to prevent Caesar from his fatal last course. Artemidorus enters carrying a letter that he himself has written to Caesar and will give to him on his way to the Capital. The letter warns him to beware of Brutus, Casca and others. He hope the letter and its warning will save Caesar. Also, Portia sends Brutus’s servant to see how Caesar is and to report back to her. A Soothsayer enters and reports to Portia that Caesar has not yet arrived at the Capitol and that he will wait to speak to Caesar in the street to warn him. 

‘The Tragedy of Julius Caesar’ Act Three – “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him…”

If anyone in 1599 had any doubt that Shakespeare was more just than “an upstart crow”, or a “tigers hart wrapt in players hyde” or a mildly talented poet with some talent for dramatic verse, they need only to have stayed at the Globe Theatre until about three o’clock on a sunny June afternoon to see Act Three of ‘Julius Caesar’

Shakespeare starts this crucial act of ‘Julius Caesar’ in a street outside the Capitol in Rome. He allows Fate to offer Caesar one last chance to overt his tragic fate. Artemidorus and the Soothsayer wait for Caesar outside the Capitol. As Caesar approaches with Brutus, Cassius, Casca, Decius, Metellus, Trebonius, Cinna, Ligarius and Mark Antony; Artemidorus gives Caesar a letter which he says addresses a matter close to Caesar’s heart that he must read straight away. Caesar, dismisses Artemidorus and his concerns, a decision that will cost him his life.

As the Caesar and the group enter the Senate, Trebonius draws Antony away. Metellus comes to Caesar first and pleads for his brother’s banishment to be rescinded but Caesar refuses. One by one, the senator’s kneel before Caesar to plead Trebonius’ case. Then Casca rises and stabs Caesar first, and the others follow in this bloody mêlée. Finally, a dying Caesar sees Brutus approach. Brutus, Caesar’s friend and ally stabs him too and then Caesar utters his famous final words: “Et tu, Brute?—Then fall Caesar”.

The murderers quickly claim that they have done this deed in honour and have freed Rome from tyranny. Some leave in the moment after the death and news arrives that Mark Anthony has heard of the events, left and gone home quickly. Brutus placates his fellow conspirators and suggests that everyone should dip their hands into the blood of Caesar to seal their bond and then allow them to advance into the public square showing their bloodied hands and proclaiming the liberty they have brought to Rome.

Suddenly, Mark Antony’s servant arrives with a message that Mark Anthony has heard of Caesar’s death and although he loved Caesar, he now vows to serve Brutus if Brutus promises not to seek revenge on Anthony for his allegiance to Caesar. Brutus says that he will welcome Anthony and assures the other conspirators that it is a effective move to embrace Anthony as their ally.

On entering, Antony is taken back when he sees the dead body of Caesar. He marvels how so small a body could hold the grand reputation of so great a man.

“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.”

Anthony begs for the conspirators to kill him too but Brutus tells Mark Anthony that their actions were pure since they acted out of love for Rome itself. Brutus says that the public of Rome will listen to their reasoning and Anthony says he does not doubt this and Anthony even shakes the bloodied hands of the assassinators one by one.

When Antony turns to Caesar’s body and he speaks to the spirit of Caesar, Cassius questions where Anthony’s loyalties lie but Anthony says he will align himself with them if they can explain why they killed Caesar and why Caesar was such a threat to them and to Rome. Again Brutus says that they acted out of noble aims and that Caesar was ambitious and would have destroyed all Rome stands for. Anthony seems to accept this and asks whether he could speak at Caesar’s funeral. Cassius sees this as a dangerous move and warns Brutus against this, but Brutus consents on the condition that he, Brutus, speaks first at the funeral and that Anthony knows that he speaks only with their consent and that Anthony should only speak well of those who did the deed. Cassius still thinks allowing Anthony to speak is a dangerous idea. Brutus’ opinion reigns. They leave Anthony with the body of Caesar to prepare to go to the public square.

Alone, Anthony asks for Caesar to pardon him for seeming to act passively to his murderers but Anthony claims that this is the calm before the storm and that Caesar’s death shall indeed be avenged even if this brings chaos to Rome itself.

The servant of Octavius (the great General who was Caesar’s adopted son and anointed successor and who Caesar himself had asked to come to Rome) enters and sees the body of Caesar. Antony informs the servant that Rome has become a dangerous place for Octavius, and instructs the servant to come and hear his speech at Caesar’s funeral and to relay what is said and how the people respond to Octavius and then Octavius should decide what his next move should be.

When Brutus enters the Forum to speak to the plebeians, he placates them and assures them that they killed Caesar out of love and that it is because Brutus has more love for Rome than he had for Caesar that he committed such an act as murder.

“Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my

cause, and be silent, that you may hear...

If then that friend demand

why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer:

--Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved

Rome more.”

The crowd cheers Brutus and seems to be swayed by his reason and his logic and then Brutus calms the crowd and begs them to listen to Mark Anthony who Brutus adds has been given permission to speak. Brutus then leaves. As Anthony rises to the stage, the crowd discusses how Caesar was indeed a tyrant and then Anthony cleverly turns the tide of feeling.

Unlike Brutus, Anthony does not speak to the crowd in blank verse. Anthony does not wish to speak down to the plebeians but to rise them up to feelings and actions of great passion. He speaks in verse using irony and rhetoric to its poetic limits to capture and move them. Anthony starts by appealing to the crowd as comrades and states that he has come to bury Caesar not to praise him. He then acknowledges that Caesar was ambitious and that Brutus is “an honorable man”. He then cleverly points out that Caesar brought great money to Rome not himself and asks whether this is a sign of ambition. Anthony then points out the empathy that Caesar had for the poor of Rome and goes on to remind the crowd that he Anthony had offered Caesar the crown three times but Caesar had refused and asks whether such humility could be considered to be ambition. He reminds the crowd that they once loved Caesar and he asks that they should mourn him now:

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones;

So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus

Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:

If it were so, it was a grievous fault,

And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest--

For Brutus is an honourable man;

So are they all, all honourable men--

Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me:

But Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome

Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

You all did see that on the Lupercal

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And, sure, he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,

But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause:

What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;

My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,

And I must pause till it come back to me.”

But Anthony has more than rhetoric up his sleeve. He then speaks again to the crowd and reveals that in his hands he has Caesar’s will. The crowd begs Anthony to read the will and he insists that they stand around Caesar’s corpse before he does so. In a moment of high theatricality, he makes the crowd look closely at Caesar’s 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 pluck'd 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 knock'd, 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…”

Anthony then claims that he himself is a simple man who is not urging others to revolt. The crowd declares they will vent their outrage and then Anthony reveals that Caesar’s will gave to all the citizens of Rome money from his own personal estate and wanted to make all his private properties and parks open to the public for them to use. The die is cast and the crowd go off to seek revenge.

Alone Anthony resigns himself to whatever outcome emerges next.

“Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot,

Take thou what course thou wilt!”

Octavius’ servant enters and informs Anthony that Octavius is now in Rome at Caesar’s house. He also informs Anthony that Brutus and Cassius have been driven from Rome.

We switch briefly to the streets where a mob attacks Cinna the Poet thinking him to be Cinna the conspirator and they attack him and presumably beat him viciously to death. Shakespeare makes us pause and see the irrational and brutal power that passion and revenge can set loose in a crowd where the innocents are slaughtered in the streets.

“… pluck but his name out of his heart…

Tear him, tear him!” 

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar Act Four – “Remember March, the ides of March remember. Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake?”

It seems somehow cruel and power-hungry that one of the first things Anthony does after encouraging the masses to rise up after Julius Caesar’s death is to visit Octavius and Lepidus to draw up a list of who should be killed in order to stabilize power. Anthony also points out that perhaps Octavius could redirect some of Caesar’s personal funds to further their cause. When Lepidus leaves Anthony voices his doubts about any power sharing arrangement with Lepidus but Octavius reinforces his belief in Lepidus. Antony then discusses how they might stop Brutus and Cassius who are now building an army and sees that their combined alliance is all that could stop them. 

We cross to a camp near Sardis where Brutus waits with his men. Lucillius arrives and reveals that Cassius seems to be growing more frustrated and distant from Brutus. Then Cassius enters with members of his army and he accuses Brutus of dissent through judging and punishing an acquaintance of Cassius who Brutus found to be taking bribes. Brutus then accuses Cassius of also taking bribes himself and reminds Cassius that they need to be above corruption since they accused Caesar of being corrupt. He questions the virtue of their killing of Caesar.

“Remember March, the ides of March remember.

Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake?”

They descend into accusations and insults. Cassius then accuses Brutus not caring for Cassius and their cause and he then offers Brutus his own dagger and says:

“There is my dagger,

And here my naked breast; within, a heart

Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold:

If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth;

I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart:

Strike, as thou didst at Caesar; for, I know,

When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him better

Than ever thou lovedst Cassius.”

Brutus then insists that Cassius put away his dagger and they embrace and make amends. Then in a rather absurd moment a Poet enters and tells Brutus and Cassius that:

“Love, and be friends, as two such men should be;

For I have seen more years, I'm sure, than ye.”

Cassius and Brutus then drink wine in friendship, and Cassius states that he was surprised by Brutus’ anger and then Brutus reveals that he recently received news of his wife Portia’s death. This foreshadows a deeper tragedy, for then Titinius and Messala enter and reveal that Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus have put seventy senators to death including Cicero. Messala then asks Brutus if he has heard any news about Portia and Brutus demands that Messala tell him all. Messala then reports that Portia is indeed dead.

Brutus gathers himself and puts forward that they should march with their armies to Philippi to face their enemy. Cassius thinks that they should wait for the enemy to come to them but Brutus feels that they should seize the day. Cassius backs down and they agree to start to prepare to march. As the others depart, Brutus calls his messengers Varro and Claudio to sleep in his tent so that early dispatches can go out with urgency.

In a scene which acts as a precursor to Shakespeare’s later dramatic ghost visitations of Hamlet’s father’s ghost and the ghost of Macbeth’s friend Banquo, Brutus is visited by a Ghost in Caesar-like form that identifies itself as “thy evil spirit” who informs Brutus that they will meet again in Philippi. The Ghost then disappears, and when Brutus wakes Varro and Caludio up to see if they had seen or heard anything, they claim that they saw nothing. Brutus asks them to then go and “commend” him to Cassius while he prepares to meet his destiny in Philippi. 

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar Act Five – “Caesar, thou art revenged,

Even with the sword that kill'd thee.”

The play ends on the battlefields of Philippi. Octavius and Antony hear that the enemy is ready. However, we will see that Anthony and Octavius are not unified at this point. Anthony, being experienced in battle says that he will attack from the right and Octavius should attack from the left. Octavius refuses and replies that he will attack from the right and Antony can come from the left. Antony feels slighted by this but Octavius will not budge so Anthony grants him his wish even though he knows that places them in a weaker position.

The face-off before the battle begins. Brutus, Cassius, Titinius, Lucillius, and Messala enter. Octavius, so self-assured a few moments before, now asks Antony if they should attack the enemy first. Calling Octavius “Caesar”, Antony declares that they should be patient and wait for the enemy to attack. Then Antony and Octavius meet Brutus and Cassius and exchange final words until Octavius gets impatient, takes out his sword and declares:

“Come, come, the cause: if arguing make us sweat,

The proof of it will turn to redder drops. Look;

I draw a sword against conspirators;

When think you that the sword goes up again?

Never, till Caesar's three and thirty wounds

Be well avenged; or till another Caesar

Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors.”

Antony and Octavius leave and Cassius talks privately to Messala informing him that although it is his own birthday today that he has seen ‘bad’ omens and fears for the worst. Cassius then talks to Brutus and questioning whether they shall meet again after this battle and asks Brutus that if things go badly today whether he would want to be led through the streets of Rome as a captive and a traitor. Brutus says that he would rather die that be a prisoner declaring that:

“… But this same day

Must end that work the ides of March begun;

And whether we shall meet again I know not.”

The pace of the play picks up as the battle rages and strategies and battle communications drive the action. Brutus sends a message to Cassius on Octavius’ battle weaknesses which he wants to utilize. We then move to Cassius who can see that Brutus’ attack came too quickly and that the tide is turning against Brutus and Cassius. News arrives that Cassius’ own camp has been attacked by Anthony. Cassius refuses to leave his position and then sends Pindarus up a hill to find out about the state of Titinius troops. Pindarus sees that Titinius, seems surrounded, and when he returns to Cassius, Cassius seeing that defeat seems inevitable, hands Pindarus his own sword, and asks Pindarus to do the noble thing and kill him. Cassius’ dying words show his resignation to his fate. “Caesar, thou art revenged,

Even with the sword that kill'd thee.”

In a cruel twist of fate, Titinius enters unharmed. He was not surrounded by enemy troops but jubilant allies. We hear that Brutus’ forces are having some success. Titinus and Messala then discover Cassius’ dead body. Titinius realizes that Cassius had seen  him greeting other allied troops and thought the cries of joy were cries of death and defeat. Messala leaves to tell Brutus of Cassius’ death and Titinius, anguished by causing Cassius’ death, stabs himself.

Messala brings back Brutus and seeing the ever-growing pile of dead bodies, Brutus feels that this is all caused by the dead Caesar finally getting his revenge and showing his immortality in death rather than life.

“O Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet!

Thy spirit walks abroad and turns our swords

In our own proper entrails.”

Brutus proclaims the virtue of Cassius and asks for the bodies to be taken from away for proper burial. They then set off to face Anthony and Octavius and their troops once more.

Lucillius is captured and pretends that he is Brutus but the rouse is easily discovered when Lucillius is brought before Antony who then sends troops to find the real Brutus.

Meanwhile Brutus sitting with the last of his band of followers and servants realizes that he has been defeated. He reveals to these men that the ghost of Caesar had visited him and he asks that they hold his sword so that he may run against it and kill himself in good honorable Roman tradition. They urge him to flee and leave and he allows them to retreat but asks Strato to stay. Brutus then gets Strato to hold a sword up and Brutus impales himself to death crying:

“Caesar, now be still:

I kill'd not thee with half so good a will.”

Then Antony enters followed by Octavius and others. Lucillius sees his master Brutus’ body and is thankful that Brutus was not captured alive. Antony gives a noble tribute to Brutus declaring:

“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 mix'd in him that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world 'This was a man!'”

Octavius then reinforces this and adds that Brutus should be buried with full Roman rites and with the respect owed to him. He tells them to depart and be joyous in the “glories of this happy day”.