Julius Caesar (Annotated by Henry N. Hudson with an Introduction by Charles Harold Herford)

By William Shakespeare

Believed to be written in 1599, William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” is one of several plays that the bard would write that were based upon Roman history. Closely based on actual events as chronicled in Plutarch’s “Lives”, it is the story of the tragic downfall of Julius Caesar and of those who conspired against him. The play begins with the celebration of Caesar’s return from defeating Pompey’s sons at the battle of Munda. When it is learned that Julius Caesar has been offered the crown of Rome by Mark Antony three times, and that each time he has refused it, it is believed that it is only a matter of time before he is to become King and thus dictator of Rome. Roman Senator Cassius is concerned about what such a coronation might mean for the people of Rome and begins to persuade fellow politician Brutus, who is also Caesar’s close friend, that they must prevent Caesar from gaining such power by assassinating him. A gripping historical drama “Julius Caesar” contains some of Shakespeare’s most memorable lines and is ranked as one of the playwright’s finest works. This edition is annotated by Henry N. Hudson, includes an introduction by Charles Harold Herford, and a biographical afterword.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
• Release date: Jan 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781420952759

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) is arguably the most famous playwright to ever live. Born in England, he attended grammar school but did not study at a university. In the 1590s, Shakespeare worked as partner and performer at the London-based acting company, the King’s Men. His earliest plays were Henry VI and Richard III, both based on the historical figures. During his career, Shakespeare produced nearly 40 plays that reached multiple countries and cultures. Some of his most notable titles include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar. His acclaimed catalog earned him the title of the world’s greatest dramatist.

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JULIUS CÆSAR

By WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Preface and Annotations by

HENRY N. HUDSON

Introduction by

CHARLES HAROLD HERFORD

Julius Cæsar

By William Shakespeare

Preface and Annotations by Henry N. Hudson

Introduction by Charles Harold Herford

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-5274-2

eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-5275-9

This edition copyright © 2016. Digireads.com Publishing.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Cover Image: ‘Julius Caesar’, Act III, Scene 2, Marc Antony’s Oration (oil on canvas), Sullivan, William Holmes (1836-1908) / Royal Shakespeare Company Collection, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire / Bridgeman Images.

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CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I.

SCENE I.

SCENE II.

SCENE III.

ACT II.

SCENE I.

SCENE II.

SCENE III.

SCENE IV.

ACT III.

SCENE I.

SCENE II.

SCENE III.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.

SCENE II.

SCENE III.

ACT V.

SCENE I.

SCENE II.

SCENE III.

SCENE IV.

SCENE V.

BIOGRAPHICAL AFTERWORD

Preface

First printed in the folio of 1623, and one of the best-printed plays in that inestimable volume; the text being in so clear and sound a state, that editors have but little trouble about it. The date of the composition has been variously argued, some placing it in the middle period of the Poet’s labours, others among the latest; and, as no clear contemporary notice or allusion had been produced, the question could not be positively determined. It is well known that the original Hamlet must have been written as early as 1602; and in iii. 2 of that play Polonius says I did enact Julius Cæsar: I was killed in the Capitol; Brutus killed me. As the play now in hand lays the scene of the stabbing in the Capitol, it is not improbable, to say the least, that the Poet had his own Julius Cæsar in mind when he wrote the passage in Hamlet. And that such was the case is made further credible by the fact, that Polonius speaks of himself as having enacted the part when he play’d once in the University, and that in the title-page of the first edition of Hamlet we have the words, As it hath been divers times acted in the city of London; as also in the two Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. Still the point cannot be affirmed with certainty; for there were several earlier plays on the subject, and especially a Latin play on Cæsar’s death, which was performed at Oxford in 1582.

Collier argued that Shakespeare’s play must have been on the stage before 1603, his reason being as follows. Drayton’s Mortimeriados appeared in 1596. The poem was afterwards recast by the author, and published again in 1603 as The Barons’ Wars. The recast has the following lines, which were not in the original form of the poem:

Such one he was, of him we boldly say,

In whose rich soul all sovereign powers did suit,

In whom in peace the elements all lay

So mix’d, as none could sovereignty impute:

That’t seem’d, when Heaven his model first began,

In him it show’d perfection in a man.

Here we have a striking resemblance to what Antony says of Brutus in the play:

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!

Collier’s theory is, that Drayton, before recasting his poem, had either seen the play in manuscript or heard it at the theatre, and so caught and copied the language of Shakespeare.

I confess there does not seem to me any great strength in this argument; for the idea and even the language of the resembling lines was so much a commonplace in the Poet’s time, that no one could claim any special right of authorship in it. Nevertheless it is now pretty certain that the play was written as early as 1601, Mr. Halliwell having lately produced the following from Weever’s Mirror of Martyrs, which was printed that year:

The many-headed multitude were drawn

By Brutus’ speech, that Cæsar was ambitious:

When eloquent Mark Antony had shown

His virtues, who but Brutus then was vicious?

As there is nothing in the history that could have suggested this, we can only ascribe it to some acquaintance with the play: so that the passage may be justly regarded as decisive of the question.

The style alone of the drama led me to rest in about the same conclusion long ago. For it seems to me that in Julius Cæsar the diction is more gliding and continuous, and the imagery more round and amplified, than in the dramas known to have been of the Poet’s latest period But these distinctive notes are of a nature to be more easily felt than described; and to make them felt examples will best serve. Take, then, a sentence from the soliloquy of Brutus just after he has pledged himself to the conspiracy:

’Tis a common proof,

That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder,

Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;

But, when he once attains the upmost round,

He then unto the ladder turns his back,

Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees

By which he did ascend.

Here we have a full, rounded period in which all the elements seem to have been adjusted, and the whole expression set in order, before any part of it was written down. The beginning foresees the end, the end remembers the beginning, and the thought and image are evolved together in an even continuous flow. The thing is indeed perfect in its way, still it is not in Shakespeare’s latest and highest style. Now compare with this a passage from The Winter’s Tale:

When you speak, sweet,

I’d have you do it ever: when you sing,

I’d have you buy and sell so; so give alms;

Pray so; and for the ordering your affairs,

To sing them too: when you do dance, I wish you

A wave o’ the sea, that you might ever do

Nothing but that; move still, still so, and own

No other function.

Here the workmanship seems to make and shape itself as it goes along, thought kindling thought, and image prompting image, and each part neither concerning itself with what has gone before, nor what is coming after. The very sweetness has a certain piercing quality, and we taste it from clause to clause, almost from word to word, as so many keen darts of poetic rapture shot forth in rapid succession. Yet the passage, notwithstanding its swift changes of imagery and motion, is perfect in unity and continuity.

Such is, I believe, a fair illustration of what has long been familiar to me as the supreme excellence of Shakespeare’s ripest, strongest, and most idiomatic style. Antony and Cleopatra is pre-eminently rich in this quality; but there is enough of it in The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, Coriolanus, and Cymbeline, to identify them as belonging to the same stage and period of authorship. But I can find hardly so much as an earnest of it in Julius Cæsar; and nothing short of very strong positive evidence would induce me to class this drama with those, as regards the time of writing.

The historic materials of the play were drawn from The Life of Julius Cæsar, The Life of Marcus Brutus, and The Life of Marcus Antonius, as set forth in Sir Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch. This work, aptly described by Warton as Shakespeare’s storehouse of learned history, was first printed in 1579, and reprinted in 1595, 1603, and 1612, not to mention several later editions. The translation was avowedly made, not directly from the Greek, but from the French version of Jaques Amiot, Bishop of Auxerre. The book is among our richest and freshest literary monuments of that age; and, apart from the use made of it by Shakespeare, is in itself an invaluable repertory of honest, manly, idiomatic English. In most of the leading incidents of the play, the charming old Greek is minutely followed; though in divers cases those incidents are worked out with surpassing fertility of invention and art. But, besides this, in many places the Plutarchian form and order of thought, and also the very words of North’s racy and delectable old English, are retained.

It may be well to add, that on the 13th of February, B.C. 44, the feast of Lupercalia was held, when the crown was offered to Cæsar by Antony. On the 15th of March following, Cæsar was slain. In November, B.C. 43, the Triumvirs, Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus, met on a small island near Bononia, and there made up their bloody proscription. The overthrow of Brutus and Cassius, near Philippi, took place in the Fall of the next year. So that the events of the drama cover a period of something over two years and a half.

HENRY N. HUDSON

Introduction

Julius Cæsar was first published in the Folio of 1623. The Cambridge editors justly emphasise the extreme correctness of the text there given, and conjecture that this play ‘may have been (as the preface falsely implied that all were) printed from the original MS. of the author.’ It was entered in the Stationers’ Register, November 8, 1623, among the plays of Shakespeare ‘not formerly entered to other men,’ and then first published.

The most important evidence for the date of Julius Cæsar is the following passage in Weever’s Mirror of Martyrs, or the Life and Death of Sir John Oldcastle (printed in 1601):—

The many-headed multitude were drawn

By Brutus’ speech, that Cæsar was ambitious.

When eloquent Mark Antonie had shewn

His virtues, who but Brutus then was vicious?

Shakespeare’s only known source, Plutarch, merely mentions the funeral speech of Brutus; summarises Antony’s in three lines of quite a different purport; and knows nothing of the ‘many-headed multitude’s’ ready change of front, exhibited with peculiarly Shakespearean sarcasm in the play. The inference is forcible that Shakespeare’s Julius Cæsar was already familiar to the stage when Weever wrote. Weever, however, tells us that his Mirror was ‘some two years ago [i.e. in 1599] made fit for print.’ The style and metre of Julius Cæsar are compatible enough with the date of Henry V.{1} But its close and numerous links between our play and Hamlet speak for the date 1600-1; and the lost play of Cæsar’s Fall on which, in 1602, Webster, Middleton, Munday, Drayton, were at work for the rival company would have been a somewhat tardy counterblast to an old piece of 1599. Other signs of the deep impression it made point to the later date. Julius Cæsar was certainly not unconcerned in the revival of the fashion for tragedies of revenge with a ghost in them, which suddenly set in with Marston’s Antonio and Mellida and Chettle’s Hoffman in 1601. Jonson made his own fashions. But the sudden appearance of the man of little Latin in the arena of Roman tragedy put him on his mettle, and there can be little doubt that his massive Sejanus (1603) conveyed an unavowed challenge.{2} If Julius Cæsar, however, greatly stimulated tragedy at large, it struck a blight upon the dramas of Cæsar’s death, hitherto a very flourishing growth. After the abortive effort of Henslowe’s men, and Alexander’s probably quite independent tragedy, printed in Scotland in 1604,{3} no English poet again attempted to vie with Shakespeare. In rude German prose Julius Cæsar was repeatedly acted by the comedians abroad.{4} A puppet-play, doubtless founded on the drama, is mentioned in 1605. A century later the Duke of Buckingham divided the play into two tragedies, Cæsar and Brutus, neither of which was ever performed.{5} And in Voltaire’s Brutus and La Mort de Cesar Shakespeare achieved his first (as yet very qualified) triumphs over the dramatic traditions of the Continent.

The suggestion that Julius Cæsar was prompted by the conspiracy of Essex in January to February 1601 (Furnivall, Acad., September 18, 1875, and Preface to Leopold Shakspere) is interesting, but the links are far too slender to support any inference as to the date.

As has just been stated, the Fall of Cæsar was familiar on English stages before Shakespeare wrote, as well as the kindred subject of Cæsar and Pompey,—a kind of First Part to the History. The very early (and perhaps mythical) Julius Cæsar recorded to have been performed at Whitehall in 1562 possibly included both. A lost play, Cæsar Interfectus, by Dr. Eedes, was acted at Oxford in 1582. Gosson mentions a Cæsar and Pompey in his School of Abuse (1579), and Henslowe another in his Diary (1594). None of these survives, but Shakespeare seems to be cognisant of their existence. His opening scene is addressed to a public familiar with the history of Pompey and Pompey’s sons;{6} Polonius’ description of his performance of the murdered Cæsar at the University, indicates that that subject was in vogue there; and some apparently purposeless deviations from Plutarch are probably concessions to an established dramatic or literary tradition. Thus the famous ‘Et tu Brute’ had occurred in the True Tragedy (1595); and Chaucer already placed the

Reviews for Julius Caesar (Annotated by Henry N. Hudson with an Introduction by Charles Harold Herford)

[petroglyph_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this one. There is some good banter at the beginning, the speeches over Caesar’s body are wonderful, and the scenes set at the battle of Philippi felt appropriately hopeful or despondent. Caesar is a bit of a non-entity, though, and I’d have wanted a little more friction between Mark Antony and Octavian Caesar. But a very enjoyable play on the whole.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

1599, meest klassieke tragedie, bron is Plutarchus; perfecte tekst (bijna helemaal rijm), later verketterd als schooltekstBrutus is de hoofdrolspeler, maar Caesar beheerst wel de handeling. Brutus is een idealist die ten onder gaat door een gebrek aan praktisch doorzicht; het tegendeel is Cassius, maar toch meer medevoelen met hem; Antonius is de gehaaide opportunist, demagoog. Brutus’ motieven: II,1 (p 820)Moord III,1Verheven pathetiek van Marcus Antonius na de moord, p 826, 827 (maar wel vals)Redevoeringen bij begrafenis III,2 vormen het hoogtepunt, vooral die van Antonius (p 828-29): opruiend door details over de dood van Caesar en een verwijzing naar zijn testament, tegelijk vriendelijk ten aanzien van de samenzweerders.

[lhlogan1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good story.

[delta351 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love the Folger editions w awesome illustrations from the library. This is a larger sized paperback which is easy on the eyes. I have to say that Shakespeare is fairly neutral in presenting the main characters.Was happy to see "Let loose the dogs of war", though I previously thought that was from one of the Henry's.

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays and one that I have read and reread over the years in addition to seeing several performances of the play. The classic story is informed by history as we know from Roman accounts about the life and death of Julius Caesar. Shakespeare adhered closely to the version of the story in Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. In comparing prominent figures from Greek and Roman history , Plutarch presented history as a compendium of the deeds of great men, portraying the characters with all the ambiguities and idiosyncrasies that were present in their lives. The writings of Marcu Tullius Cicero also informed Shakespeare. Cicero was a staunch republican and his dislike of Caesar preceded the conspiracy that led to his assassination, which conspiracy Cicero did not directly participate in. A final source for Shakespeare was the Roman historian Appian who chronicled the civil wars as part of his longer history of Rome. All of these sources inform the dramatic tension within this play adding a historical realism to Shakespeare's own dramatic genius. I especially like the relationship between Caesar and his wife. I also found the psychology of the characters, particularly Brutus, an important aspect of the drama. This helps make many of the characters from Brutus and Cassius to Mark Antony as memorable as the title character. It is one of the great Roman plays in Shakespeare's works, and it is both an historical and a dramatic achievement.

[john257hopper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this play just after finishing Goldsworthy's excellent biography of Caesar. The play focuses much more on the conspirators, especially Brutus and Cassius, rather than the titular subject, who indeed hardly appears in person and is only about three scenes, one of them as a ghost. It is splendid stuff, largely, at least in the initial acts based on the premise that the conspirators were freeing Rome of a tyrant through their act; only, when Antony makes his famous "friends, Romans, countrymen" speech does a more nuanced view of Caesar's positives and negatives enter the scene. Not one of the meatier plays, but a good supplement to other reading about the period.

[seraphinac.b4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In the book Julius Caesar, a group of conspirators lead by a man named Brutus plot to kill Julius Caesar. After succeeding in killing him, Brutus sees Julius Caesar's ghost who promises to see him in Philippi. On a battlefield in Philippi, Brutus fights with Cassius's army. Cassius being overthrown, commits suicide. When one member of Cassius's army finds Cassius dead, he then also kills himself. Brutus is defeated and runs upon his sword. Conflict in Rome is at an end. As a twelve year old this wasn't the best book I've ever read. It was a little confusing with a lot of characters and action. I thought the book was going to be about Julius Caesar but it was more about the conspirators getting rid of him. One of the morals was don't murder anyone because you will have to live with the guilt the rest of your life. This play taught me a little about Rome and war. I really enjoy reading Shakespeare. Overall this was a good book.

[bibliophile26 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this due to my interest in HBO's Rome series (which has been cancelled after only 2 seasons - why TV gods, WHY???). Anyway, as an English major I read tons of Shakespeare, so it wasn't a challenging read for me and I found my mind analyzing language/passages as I would have been required to do in school. Let's just say the history plays have never been my favorites; maybe knowing the ending spoils the play?

[sly_wit · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Julius Caesar is the first Shakeaspeare I ever read (in English I). I didn't remember much of it when I picked it up again in preparation for a performance at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, but was pleasantly surprised by how modern and relevant it seemed.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I think everyone knows parts of this play: "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears." The first part of it is maybe not so well known, but I think most people know something of Mark Antony's speech after Caesar's death. I think this might be my favourite Shakespeare play so far -- possibly partly due to already loving to read about Caesar, but also because of the strength of the rhetoric in it.

I have actually seen parts of this performed -- the speech I referred to, actually -- and when I'd read it, I looked on youtube for performances of my favourite parts. I'd go see this play in a heartbeat.

So, anyone remember why I disliked Shakespeare before...? I do wish schools wouldn't shove Romeo and Juliet down people's throats: it's far from my favourite.

[msnikki · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Great Play, could easily see this as a modern re-telling set in the Italian Mob or as hotile financial take over...I see Macbeth the same way.But betrayal is a hell of a thing.

[ausie7 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the best William Shakespeare that I have ever read. I haven't read much but this one was really appealing to me. Even though I knew the ending, I couldn't put the book down until the end.

[shawnd_72 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look." This was one of Shakespeare's more excellent books in my opinion. While historical it wasn't as bad as one of the Richard books--it had a timeless story without being too historical or too political, especially British-ly political. One of the original eponymous tragedy, a story of a man's success and betrayal. A wonderful masterpiece and underrated.

[lyzadanger · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Forgive me that it took me eight months to finish Shakespeare's shortest play. I kept picking it up, reading the first act, and then forgetting. It's strange reading about Roman history through compound filters: dramatization, Shakespearean England, what we know of the Roman Republic, modern norms. One gets so twisted around that nary an eyebrow is raised in Act 2 when Caesar asks "What is't o'clock?" (Brutus: "Caesar, 'tis strucken eight.") Such a tangle that it might not jump immediately to mind that there were probably not a whole lot of chiming clocks in the first century BC. We've got Centurions herein acting like they're on Queen Elizabeth's court. Strange.This play is brief. Brief enough that it doesn't feel like a story so much as a string of exchanges. Brutus (who refers to himself in the third person and thus puts me in the mind of Tarzan or other deep-voiced simpleton) seems instantly swayed to subterfuge. Caesar is full of lofty exaltations but kind of amounts to nothing when you think about it. Marc Antony does show a bit of craftiness, and Cassius is devious. I do like the way Casca responds to Cassius' invitation to dinner and I hope I can use it myself sometime: "Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your dinner worth the eating."I do feel like that sometimes.

[sweetsarah_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow that Brutus was one sneaky guy he just wanted to be like Caesar. and then the scene when they killed Caesar was like WOW

[hlselz · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Had to read the play, cause I love the history. Im not a big fan of Shakespeare, but the loved the play because of the charectors.

[michael_rose-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One begins to understand cultural references the more one reads Shakespeare, and Julius Caesar is no exception to this rule (this is perhaps especially true for Star Trek fans). The fault being not in our stars but in ourselves is a great bit of poetry that everyone should heed.

[katieloucks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

did an adaptation of a scene of this! love it!

[wealhtheowwylfing · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The first Shakespeare I ever read. I am wildly in love with Marc Antony (odd, because I actively despise him in [book: Antony and Cleopatra]).

[milti_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of the most powerful of his plays. Yes, the characters are set in black and white in true Shakespearean style and there is no room for hman error, but therein lies the beauty and power of this drama.

[carterchristian1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I hope to see this again soon. The first time I saw it as a high school play, the next time in 1997 at a Pub theater (more members of the cast than the audience) next to the railroad station in Greenwich England...with a wonderful redo as a Mafia, Chicago script.

[rfewell_3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I read this play during my Sophomore year of high school. I loved it! "Et tu, Brute!" I thought of it again because I'm reading "A Long Way Gone", and this play is referenced frequently.

[clancy.coonradt · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful classic that truly speaks to the duality of man and his eternal search for not only power, but those that are truly pure at heart. Amazing how many quotes and sayings have come from this piece of literature.

[jhudsui_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Enh I don't know what I can tell you about this. Antony's funeral oration is fairly amusing.

[martinbodek · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

'Tis happened upon chance that mine eyes have read the tale of Julius Caesar. For sooth, a great tragedy were 't. Yet happiness was clutch't betwixt mine hands that such wordsmithings are imbued into my corpus of knowledge. Brutus was not a noble understood, know that I now. It has cometh to pass that Royal Antony's quotes sitteth in upon my vernacular at the ready. What pleasure shall I give mine eyes to scan upon next? Be it, I prayeth, one of Sir William's comedies, for these tragedic readings have ravaged vexings upon my soul. Twelfth Night? Much Ado About Nothing? Instruct me, fellow plebeians.

[coach_of_alva · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Shakespeare’s dissection of the damage that idealism can do in politics is still relevant.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. Et tu, Brute. Beware the ides of March.” I'm a little embarrassed to admit that this is all I knew of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar up to this point in my life. There's so much more to this play. Shakespeare captures the tension and drama of the last years of the Roman Republic and the role of Julius Caesar's ambition in hastening its end. The L.A. Theatre Works audio production is outstanding. The cast includes Richard Dreyfuss, Kelsey Grammar, Stacy Keach, John De Lancie, and JoBeth Williams. I will listen to this recording again. Next time I will plan to do my listening when I'm able to follow along in the printed text.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

So dry. What a mistake to cram this down 15-year old throats just because it's short. How many 10th graders have been completely turned off by Shakespeare because this is over their head. I really didn't care much for this. Many of his history plays are far superior. Should've been called "The Rise and Fall of Brutus" because Caesar is such a minor character -- no development either.

[locriian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My favourite part of this play is the "Antony is an honest man" speech. Excellent.

[mstrust · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Cassius is quickly able to plant the idea of overthrowing Julius Caesar in the mind of Brutus, a man who claims to love Caesar. Cassius and Brutus gather a group of the Caesar's friends, who they join together to murder the leader, then tell each other that they did the man a favor and will be remembered for their courage in removing a tyrant. But then Marcus Antony gives a clever eulogy at the funeral, which causes the public to question the motives of the assassins, the conspirators no longer trust one another and Brutus finds his position threatened.A good example of how power corrupts, as even the good guy, Antony, tries to manipulate his friends to gain more for himself.