Julius Caesar ends with the defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi, the death of both, and Antony's praise of Brutus, the noblest of the Romans. The play closes with Octavius ordering that honors be given to the defeated enemy.
In Act V, scene 3, Cassius sees the soldiers fleeing and sends Titinius to check whether the distant troops are friendly. Pindarus, from the top of a hill, reports that Titinius has been captured, and Cassius, judging him lost, orders Pindarus to kill him with the sword that pierced Caesar. Titinius returns with good news, sees the body, and kills himself too. Brutus mourns the two and says that Caesar's spirit still walks abroad, turning the swords of the Romans against themselves.
In scene 4, young Cato dies fighting, and Lucilius pretends to be Brutus so as to be taken in his place; Antony sees the deception and orders him treated well. In scene 5, surrounded, Brutus asks Clitus, Dardanius, and Volumnius to kill him, and the three refuse. He tells Volumnius that Caesar's ghost has appeared to him twice and that his hour has come. Strato holds the sword, and Brutus throws himself upon it, telling Caesar that he killed him with less will than he now kills himself.
Over the body, Antony says that all the conspirators, except Brutus, acted out of envy of Caesar, and that he alone joined the group out of thought for the common good. Octavius orders that he be treated according to his virtue, with funeral honors, and closes the play by ordering the field put to rest.