Julius Caesar

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, commonly shortened to Julius Caesar, is a historical tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written and first performed in 1599. Shakespeare drew primarily on Sir Thomas North's 1579 translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives, specifically the lives of Julius Caesar, Marcus Brutus, and Mark Antony. The play dramatizes the political conspiracy that led to the assassination of the Roman dictator Julius Caesar and the subsequent civil war. It opens as Caesar returns to Rome after defeating the sons of his former co-ruler Pompey, alarming a group of senators who fear his growing power. Led by the cunning Cassius and the conflicted Brutus, the conspirators plot to assassinate Caesar to preserve the Roman Republic. A soothsayer warns Caesar to beware the Ides of March, but he dismisses the warning. The assassination occurs, followed by Mark Antony's famous funeral oration that turns public opinion against the conspirators. The play concludes with the defeat of Brutus and Cassius by the forces of Antony and Octavius at the Battle of Philippi.

Although the play bears Caesar's name, much of its dramatic focus falls on Marcus Brutus, whose internal conflict between personal loyalty and perceived public duty has led many to consider him the true tragic hero. The play explores themes of power, ambition, betrayal, honor, political rhetoric, friendship versus public duty, tyranny, and the consequences of political violence. It contains some of Shakespeare's most quoted lines, including Et tu, Brute? and Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. The phrase Beware the Ides of March has entered common parlance. The play was first published in the First Folio of 1623, appearing as the sixth play in the Tragedies section. The Folio text is considered a particularly clean text with few errors.

The play has been performed and filmed numerous times. Notable stage productions include Orson Welles's 1937 production, which drew parallels to twentieth-century totalitarianism. One of the earliest cultural references appears in Shakespeare's own Hamlet, where Polonius says, I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed in the Capitol. Brutus killed me, a likely meta-reference to the original actors Richard Burbage (Brutus/Hamlet) and John Heminges (Caesar/Polonius). The play is part of Shakespeare's Roman plays, alongside Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra. It has remained one of Shakespeare's most studied and frequently performed works for centuries, with its meditation on tyranny, assassination, and political rhetoric remaining timeless. [edit]