Globe Education Online

Julius Caesar [Paul Shelley]. Photo: John Tramper

How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over,
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!

3.1.112-4

The honourable Brutus, Cassius and their fellow senators, assassinate their Emperor Julius Caesar, the most powerful man in the world. In the public square, Mark Antony turns popular opinion against them, and civil war ensues. Ambition, honour, propechy and civic responsibility versus personal loyalty are all themes in this great tragedy.  

Sir Francis Bacon comments:

"Caesar did extremely affect the name of King; and some were set on as he passed by, in popular acclamation to salute him king. Whereupon, finding the cry weak and poor, he put it off thus in a kind of jest, as if they had mistaken his surname: "Non Rex sum, sed Caesar"; a speech, that if it be searched, the life and fullness of it can scarce be expressed."

Julius Caesar was performed in 1999, as part of the Roman Season.