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 Caesar is all-powerful in Rome. The Roman Senate is subservient to him. All but the semblance of democratic government has been lost. What is a patriotic Roman to do? Shakespeare's classic play of political intrigue, assassination, and civil war in Ancient Rome—  Julius Caesar.

102/100 BCE: Gaius Julius Caesar was born (by Caesarean section according to an unlikely legend) of Aurelia and Gaius Julius Caesar, a praetor. His family had noble, patrician roots, although they were neither rich nor influential in this period. His aunt Julia was the wife of Gaius Marius, leader of the Popular faction.

 The play reflected the general anxiety of England due to worries over succession of leadership. At the time of its creation and first performance, Queen Elizabeth, a strong ruler, was elderly and had refused to name a successor, leading to worries that a civil war similar to that of Rome's might break out after her death.

 Julius Caesar  Octavius Caesar, Marcus Antonius, M. Aemilius Lepidus: Triumverate after the death of Julius Caesar  Cicero, Publius, Popilius Lena: Senators  Marcus Brutus, Cassius, Casca, Trebonius, Ligarius, Decius Brutus, Metellus Cimber,Cinna: Conspirators against Julius Caesar  Flavius and Marullus: Tribunes  Artemidorus: a Sophist of Cnidos  A Soothsayer (Also called Fortuneteller)  Cinna: a poet, who is not related to the conspiracy  Lucilius, Titinius, Messala, Cato the Younger, Volumnius: Friends to Brutus and Cassius  Varro, Clitus, Claudius, Strato, Lucius, Dardanius: Servants to Brutus  Pindarus: Servant to Cassius  Calpurnia: wife of Caesar  Portia: wife of Brutus

 Marcus Brutus is Caesar's close friend; his ancestors were famed for driving the tyrannical King Tarquin from Rome (described in Shakespeare's earlier The Rape of Lucrece ). Brutus allows himself to be cajoled into joining a group of conspiring senators because of a growing suspicion— implanted by Caius Cassius—that Caesar intends to turn republican Rome into a monarchy under his own rule. Traditional readings of the play maintain that Cassius and the other conspirators are motivated largely by envy and ambition, whereas Brutus is motivated by the demands of honor and patriotism; other commentators, such as Isaac Asimov, suggest that the text shows Brutus is no less moved by envy and flattery. One of the central strengths of the play is that it resists categorizing its characters as either simple heroes or villains.

 The soothsayer's (fortuneteller) warning to Julius Caesar, "Beware the Ides of March," has forever imbued that date with a sense of foreboding. But in Roman times the expression "Ides of March" did not necessarily evoke a dark mood—it was simply the standard way of saying "March 15.“  Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; the 13th in the other months)

 full title · The Tragedy of Julius Caesar  author · William Shakespeare  type of work · Play  genre · Tragic drama, historical drama  language · English  time and place written · 1599, in London  date of first publication · Published in the First Folio of 1623, probably from the theater company’s official promptbook rather than from Shakespeare’s manuscript  publisher · Edward Blount and William Jaggard headed the group of five men who undertook the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio  narrator · None

 protagonists · Brutus and Cassius  antagonists · Antony and Octavius  setting (time) · 44 b.c.  setting (place) · Ancient Rome, toward the end of the Roman republic  point of view · The play sustains no single point of view; however, the audience acquires the most insight into Brutus’s mind over the course of the action

 tense · Present  foreshadowing · The play is full of omens, including lightning and thunder, the walking dead, and lions stalking through the city (I.iii).

 tone · Serious, proud, virtuous, enraged, vengeful, idealistic, anguished  themes · Fate versus free will; public self versus private self; misinterpretation and misreading of signs and events; commitment to ideals versus adaptability and compromise; the relationship between rhetoric and power; allegiance and rivalry among men

 motifs · Omens and portents, letters  symbols · The women in the play, Portia and Calpurnia, symbolize the neglected private lives of their respective husbands, Brutus and Caesar. The men dismiss their wives as hindrances to their public duty, ignoring their responsibilities to their own mortal bodies and their private obligations as friends, husbands, and feeling men.