Julius Caesar

Characters

Character Map

Who is who, and who belongs to whom. Click a name to open the character page.

Brutus Brutus is the man Rome trusts, and for that reason the man the conspiracy needs. He loves Julius Caesar, has no personal grievance against him, and still leads his death, convinced that he does it for Rome. He descends from the Brutus who drove out King... Cassius Cassius is the architect of the conspiracy. Lean and hungry, in Julius Caesar's description, he reads a great deal, observes everything, and takes no pleasure in music or games. He says he saved Caesar from the Tiber when he was drowning and now sees this man... Mark Antony Mark Antony is Julius Caesar's friend and right hand, the runner at the Lupercal festival, and the one who offers him the crown three times. Cassius fears him as a shrewd schemer; Brutus takes him for a man of sport, revelry, and company, and spares him... Julius Caesar Julius Caesar is the man the whole play talks about and who appears in few scenes: celebrated in Rome on the day of the Lupercal, the one to whom part of the Senate wants to give the crown and whom another part decides to kill. He is deaf in one ear, falls in... Portia Portia is Brutus's wife and Cato's daughter, and this is how she presents herself when she demands to know her husband's secret: a woman, but a woman of lineage and proven worth. She appears in two scenes, on the night before the Ides and on the morning when... Calpurnia Calpurnia is the wife of Julius Caesar, and the attempt to keep him from going to the Capitol on the Ides of March is hers. She cried out in a dream, three times, that Caesar was being murdered, and she tells him of the portents of the night. In the Lupercal... Casca Casca is the conspirator with a sharp tongue and rough manners. Brutus is struck by the coarseness he has shown since school, and Cassius calls it the sauce for good judgment. He is the one who tells Brutus and Cassius what happened at the Lupercal festival,... Octavius Octavius is the young man whom Julius Caesar summoned to Rome and whom Mark Antony treats as an ally to whom he gives advice. He appears on stage only in Act IV, and at Philippi it is he who closes the play: he imposes his position on his companion, swears...

Other characters

Flavius: Tribune of Rome who, in Act I, Scene 1, drives from the streets the craftsmen celebrating Caesar's triumph and orders the decorations removed from his statues, to clip his wings and prevent the servitude of all. Casca later tells that he was silenced.
Marullus: Tribune and companion of Flavius. In Act I, Scene 1, he rebukes the craftsmen for forgetting Pompey, whom they once hailed from the rooftops with their children in their arms, and who now strew flowers on Caesar's path.
The Carpenter: Craftsman in holiday dress, stopped in the street by Flavius and Marullus, who ask him why he is without his apron and his trade's rule on a working day. He appears in Act I, Scene 1, among those celebrating Caesar's triumph.
The Cobbler: Shoe mender who answers Marullus's questions with jokes in Act I, Scene 1. He says he leads the people through the streets to wear out their shoes and so have more work, and only later admits that they are going to see Caesar at the triumph.
The Plebeians: The crowd of Rome, without individual names: it celebrates Caesar at the triumph, acclaims Brutus in the Forum and, after hearing Antony, goes out to burn the conspirators' houses and attacks the poet Cinna, shouting that they should tear him apart, because he has the same name as a conspirator. The decisive moment is Act III, Scene 2.
The Soothsayer: Seer who, in the Lupercal procession, shouts to Caesar to beware the Ides of March and is dismissed as a dreamer. On the day of the Ides, Caesar tells him that the Ides have come, and he answers that they have, but have not passed. He appears in Act I, Scene 2.
Cicero: Senator who, in Act I, Scene 3, hears Casca's frightened account on the night of the storm, says that men read facts in their own way, and withdraws. Brutus excludes him from the conspiracy because he would never follow what others begin; the letters from the camp later tell that he died in the proscriptions.
Cinna, the Conspirator: Conspirator who, in Act I, Scene 3, seeks Cassius on the night of the storm and receives from him the letters he must leave on the praetor's chair, at Brutus's window, and on the statue of the elder Brutus, so that Brutus finds them.
Lucius: Young servant of Brutus. In Act II, Scene 1, he wakes at his master's request, hands over the anonymous letter found at the window, and announces the hooded visitors; at Sardis he plays music until he falls asleep and sees nothing of Caesar's ghost.
Decius Brutus: Conspirator who promises to lead Caesar to the Capitol, because he knows how to bend him through flattery. In Act II, Scene 2, he reinterprets Calpurnia's dream as a good omen, says the Senate will give Caesar a crown, and that if he stays home they will say he is afraid.
Metellus Cimber: Conspirator who suggests recruiting Ligarius, resentful of Caesar. In Act III, Scene 1, he kneels before Caesar to plead for the return of his exiled brother; Caesar refuses, and the plea serves as a pretext for the conspirators to surround him.
Trebonius: Conspirator. In Act II, Scene 2, he says aside that he will stand so close to Caesar that his friends will wish him far away; in the Capitol he keeps Antony busy with conversation, so that he does not interfere with the blow.
Caius Ligarius: Roman, sick and resentful of Caesar, who had rebuked him for speaking well of Pompey. In Act II, Scene 1, on learning from Brutus that a deed of honor is under way, he sheds his illness and promises to follow him without knowing what will be done.
Publius: Elderly senator who comes to fetch Caesar on the morning of the Ides. In Act III, Scene 1, after the murder, Brutus sends him to reassure the people, and Cassius asks him to leave, so that the crowd does not harm him.
Artemidorus: Sophist of Cnidus who writes a letter naming the conspirators and decides to hand it to Caesar in the street as an ordinary petition. In Act II, Scene 3, he appears reading it; on the morning of the Ides, Caesar tells him that what concerns himself comes last, and enters the Senate without reading it.
Popilius Lena: Senator who, in Act III, Scene 1, wishes Cassius that the enterprise of the day prospers and speaks alone with Caesar, which makes the conspirators fear they have been discovered, until Brutus notices that he smiles and Caesar does not change.
Cinna, the Poet: Poet who leaves home, despite a bad dream, in Act III, Scene 3, and is stopped by exalted citizens. Mistaken for the conspirator of the same name, he is attacked even as he shouts that he is the poet, and one of the citizens asks that they tear him too, for his bad verses.
Lepidus: One of the three who rule Rome after Caesar. In Act IV, Scene 1, he accepts his brother's death in exchange for that of a nephew of Antony's and goes to fetch Caesar's will; Antony calls him an insignificant man and compares him to a pack animal.
Lucilius: Officer of Brutus. At Sardis he tells that Cassius received him with courtesy, but without the intimacy of before; in Act V, Scene 4, he passes himself off as Brutus to be taken in his place, and tells Antony that no enemy will take the real Brutus alive.
Titinius: Officer of Cassius. In Act V, Scene 3, Cassius sends him to check the distant troops and, judging him captured, dies; Titinius returns with good news and a laurel crown from friends and, seeing the body, kills himself with Cassius's sword.
Pindarus: Servant of Cassius, whose life Cassius spared in Parthia in exchange for obedience. In Act V, Scene 3, he reports from a hilltop the capture of Titinius, kills Cassius at his request with the sword that killed Caesar, and flees far from that land.
Messala: Friend of Brutus and Cassius. In Act IV, Scene 3, he confirms to Brutus the death of Portia and of Cicero in the proscriptions; at Philippi he is the witness of Cassius's birthday and, before Cassius's body, blames Error, son of melancholy.
The Poet: Poet who bursts into the tent of Brutus and Cassius in Act IV, Scene 3, asking the generals to be reconciled because he has seen more years than they have. Cassius laughs at his verses, and Brutus sends him away as one of the fools who rhyme in war.
Varro: Servant of Brutus. In Act IV, Scene 3, he is called by Lucius, with Claudius, to sleep in Brutus's tent, and offers to stand at his orders; Brutus tells him to lie down. After the ghost, he says he saw nothing.
Claudius: Servant of Brutus who sleeps in the tent beside Varro. In Act IV, Scene 3, awakened after the vision of Caesar's ghost, he says he saw nothing and does not know why he cried out, and receives from Brutus, with Varro, the message for Cassius to advance early.
The Young Cato: Soldier of Brutus, son of Marcus Cato. In Act V, Scene 4, he shouts his own name across the field, as an enemy of tyrants and friend of the homeland, and dies fighting; Lucilius praises him for dying as bravely as Titinius.
Clitus: Man of Brutus. In Act V, Scene 5, he refuses, on no account, the whispered request to kill him and says he prefers to kill himself; when Brutus insists on staying, he asks him to flee and leaves with Dardanius and Volumnius.
Dardanius: Man of Brutus. In Act V, Scene 5, Brutus whispers to him the request that he kill him, and Dardanius recoils, asking whether he will do such a deed; he tells Clitus what was asked and leaves with the others when Brutus orders it.
Volumnius: Schoolfriend of Brutus. In Act V, Scene 5, Brutus tells him that Caesar's ghost has appeared twice and that his hour has come, and asks him to hold the sword; Volumnius refuses, saying that this is not a friend's office.
Strato: Man of Brutus. In Act V, Scene 5, he holds the sword with his face turned away, as Brutus asks, while Brutus throws himself upon it, and afterward says that Brutus conquered only himself; he goes on to serve Octavius.