The Quarrel, Portia, and the Ghost

Scene summary

In Brutus's tent, near Sardis, Cassius complains that Brutus punished Lucius Pella for accepting a bribe from the people of Sardis, despite the letters in which he had asked for clemency. Brutus replies that Cassius sells offices for gold to men who do not deserve them, and reminds him that the conspirators killed Caesar for justice, not to soil their hands with bribery. The two trade insults and threats; Brutus says that Cassius refused him money to pay the legions, which he does not obtain by vile means. Cassius denies it and offers his breast to the dagger so that Brutus may kill him as he killed Caesar, and Brutus orders the weapon put away and says that his own anger is like the spark of flint, which soon cools. The two reconcile, and a poet who bursts in to plead for peace is driven out.

Brutus tells Cassius that Portia has died: unable to bear his absence and the news that Octavius and Antony were strong, she went mad and swallowed fire. With Messala and Titinius, he says he has received letters that Octavius and Antony are marching on Philippi; Messala's letters speak of a hundred senators killed in the proscriptions, and Brutus's of seventy, Cicero among them. Messala asks whether there is news of his wife, and only on hearing the confirmation does Brutus accept the loss as a Roman. Brutus proposes marching on Philippi at once; Cassius prefers to wait for the enemy, who would tire; Brutus replies that the people of the region support them against their will, that the enemy grows, and that the cause is at its height, and he invokes the tide that, taken at the flood, leads to fortune. Cassius yields.

At night, with the servants asleep, Brutus reads a book and sees the ghost of Julius Caesar, who calls himself his evil spirit and promises to meet him again at Philippi. Brutus wakes Lucius and the others, who have seen nothing, and sends word to Cassius to advance early.