• Roman Emperor
• Unable to separate public and private life
• Believed he was as eternal as the North
Star

• A Roman senator

• Loyal friend to and supporter of
Caesar

• A Roman concerned with
Caesar’s rise to power
• Leader of the conspiracy against
Julius Caesar
• An opportunist

• Julius Caesar’s nephew and heir

• Casca
• Decius Brutus
• Cinna
• Metullus Cimber
• Trebonius
• Caius Ligarius

• Caesar’s wife

• Brutus’ wife

• Brutus’ servants

• Fortune-teller
• Tries to warn
Caesar of his fate

• A Roman General responsible for the reconciliation of
Antony and
Octavious

• Poet
• Fatally confused with Cinna the conspirator

An introduction to Julius Caesar
• Deals with Roman generals and the life and times of ancient Rome
• It is a political play about a general who would be king, but who, because of his own PRIDE and
AMBITION, meets an untimely death
• Shakespeare says that good government must be based upon morality.

What was going on in
Rome during this time?
• For centuries, Romans debated and even fought civil wars while trying to decide whether a MONARCHY, a
REPUBLIC, or a DICTATORSHIP was the best form of government.

A timeline based on real events
100 B.C.
Rome was a democracy
60 B.C.
a triumvirate (a three-man rule) of Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey was formed to govern Rome.
58 B.C.
Caesar was made
Governor of Gaul
44 B.C.
Shakespeare writes
Julius Caesar
0 B.C

• Acts 1 and 2deal with conspiracy against
Caesar
• Act 3the climax of the play with Caesar’s death
• Act 4consequences of the plot
• Act 5the fate of the assassins