Character guide

Julius Caesar

major

Also known as Caesar, great Caesar, noble Caesar, mighty Caesar, immortal Caesar

Caesar stands at the center of Rome's political world, fresh from triumph, directing Antony to touch Calpurnia in the sacred race and dismissing a soothsayer's warning about the ides of March as the muttering of a dreamer. He reads Cassius as a lean, hungry observer who thinks too much and smiles too little, and admits that such men are never at ease while they behold a greater than themselves. His deafness in one ear, his superstition, and his appetite for ceremony make him both towering and touchable—which is exactly what makes the conspiracy against him imaginable.

Marcus Brutus

major

Also known as Brutus, noble Brutus, gentle Brutus, old Brutus, Lord Brutus

Brutus moves through Rome as the man everyone wishes would open his eyes to his own worth, the noble name Cassius needs to legitimize any conspiracy. He confesses to Cassius that he is vexed with private passions and forgets the shows of love to other men, which makes him recruitable and remote at once. When Antony kneels to him after the murder, Brutus answers with brotherly reverence and a promise that the swords have leaden points for him—a generosity that will prove far more dangerous than Cassius's suspicion.

Mark Antony

major

Also known as Antony, Mark Antony, noble Antony, most noble Antony, Antonius

Antony opens the play as the athletic favorite who obeys Caesar's lightest word, then pivots into the most dangerous man in Rome by mourning Caesar publicly while privately vowing woe to the hand that shed his blood. He asks only to speak at the funeral, and Brutus grants it against Cassius's warning, believing a controlled oration will do no harm. Antony's genius is patience: he flatters the conspirators to their faces, then turns Caesar's wounds into a weapon the crowd cannot resist.

Caius Cassius

major

Also known as Cassius, noble Cassius, good Cassius, brave Cassius, Cassius Bear

Cassius is the conspiracy's engine, a man Caesar himself distrusts for thinking too much and smiling too little, who works on Brutus by holding up a mirror and showing him the worth Rome is groaning for. He hates the idea of any single man towering above the rest, and he recruits through flattery, insinuation, and forged letters rather than open argument. His misgiving about letting Antony speak at the funeral falls shrewdly to the purpose, and Brutus overrules him—the first of many times Cassius will be right and ignored.

Octavius Caesar

supporting

Also known as Octavius, young Octavius, noble Caesar

Octavius enters the story as the young man Cassius dismisses as a peevish schoolboy, yet he speaks to Brutus and Cassius with a cold formality that already sounds like command. He refuses to accept that Caesar could die by traitors' hands unless he brought them with him, and he pledges his sword stays drawn until another Caesar has added slaughter to the sword of traitors. His arrival transforms a Roman quarrel into a dynastic war, and his composure in the face of older, louder men marks him as the future.

Casca

supporting

Also known as gentle Casca, honest Casca, damned Casca

Casca is the conspiracy's plainspoken witness, the man Brutus and Cassius pluck by the sleeve for an unvarnished account of Antony offering Caesar the crown three times and Caesar refusing it three times, each refusal gentler than the last. He describes the rabblement hooting and throwing up sweaty night-caps with such contempt that his own honesty becomes a kind of insult. He is also the hand that strikes first in the Capitol, which makes his earlier mockery of Caesar's fainting fit curdle into something far grimmer.

Decius Brutus

supporting

Also known as Decius, Decius Caesar

Decius Brutus moves easily among the conspirators, trusted to lead the procession and to bend Caesar's ear with honeyed persuasion. His particular talent is the well-timed compliment, the courteous lie that turns a man's own vanity against him. In the tense hours before the Capitol, he is the one who must close the gap between Caesar's suspicion and his pride, making his charm a quiet instrument of the plot's success.

Trebonius

supporting

Also known as good Trebonius

Trebonius is the quiet hinge on which the conspiracy's timing turns, tasked with peeling Antony away from Caesar's side at the crucial moment. He is remembered by Cassius as a man who 'knows his time,' and his brief, efficient exit with Antony clears the stage for the knives. When he returns, it is to report Antony fled and Rome in uproar, a witness to the immediate chaos his small act helped unleash.

Metellus Cimber

supporting

Also known as Metellus, Cimber, constant Cimber

Metellus Cimber approaches Caesar's seat with a petition for his exiled brother, his kneeling posture and flattering words designed to draw others close and create the moment for the attack. Caesar's cold refusal, his boast of being 'constant as the northern star,' transforms the plea into a public test of his inflexibility. Metellus's suit is the fuse: it gathers the conspirators around the throne and turns a private grievance into the opening act of the assassination.

Portia

supporting

Also known as good Portia, gentle Portia

Portia is bound to Brutus by a fierce, anxious love and a demand to be treated as an equal partner rather than a sheltered wife. She has already proven her resolve by giving herself a wound, yet in the street before her house she confesses the strain of a 'man's mind' in a 'woman's might,' unable to keep counsel or still her fear. Her frantic errand to Lucius and her near-faint as she sends a cheerful message she does not feel make her the human cost of the conspiracy, felt far from the Senate floor.

Calpurnia

minor

Also known as Calpurnia Caesar

Caesar's superstitious wife who dreams of his murder.

Lucius

supporting

Also known as Lucius Varro, Lucius Madam, Lucius Pella, Lucius Sir

Lucius is the boy who answers Brutus's call in the orchard before dawn, lighting the study and finding the anonymous letter that urges Brutus to 'speak, strike, redress.' He moves through the night's tension with sleepy obedience, unaware that the paper he delivers and the calendar he checks are part of a plot's machinery. His presence makes Brutus's private torment domestic and immediate, a quiet witness to the sleepless night before the Ides.

Pindarus

minor

Also known as Cassius Pindarus

Cassius's servant who mistakenly reports Titinius's capture.

Titinius

minor

Also known as Titinius O Cassius

Friend of Cassius who dies by suicide after a misunderstanding.

Messala

minor

Also known as Messala That

Republican officer who brings news of Portia's death to Brutus.

Young Cato

minor

Also known as Cato, Marcus Cato

Brutus's ally who dies fighting at Philippi.

Strato

minor

Also known as good Strato

Brutus's servant who holds the sword for his suicide.

Cicero

minor

Famous orator who appears briefly to comment on omens.

Soothsayer

minor

Also known as the Soothsayer

Prophet who warns Caesar to beware the Ides of March.

Cinna the Poet

minor

Also known as Cinna, good Cinna

Poet mistaken for conspirator Cinna and killed by the mob.

Claudius

minor

Also known as Sirrah Claudius

Servant of Brutus who helps guard his tent.

Lucilius

minor

Also known as Brutus Lucilius

Friend of Brutus who impersonates him to save his life.

Caius Ligarius

minor

Also known as Ligarius

Conspirator who overcomes illness to join the plot.

Volumnius

minor

Also known as good Volumnius

Friend of Brutus who refuses to help him die.

Clitus

minor

Also known as Clitus Statilius, Clitus Fly

Soldier who refuses Brutus's request to kill him.

Dardanius

minor

Soldier who refuses to help Brutus die.

Lepidus

minor

Also known as Exit Lepidus

Weak triumvir used by Antony and Octavius.

Publius

minor

Also known as Publius Cimber

Senator present at Caesar's assassination.

Popilius Lena

minor

Also known as Popilius

Senator who hints he knows of the conspiracy.

Artemidorus

minor

Also known as Artemidorus O Caesar

Teacher who warns Caesar in a letter about the plot.

Flavius

minor

Also known as Enter Flavius

Tribune who scolds commoners for celebrating Caesar's triumph.

Marullus

minor

Also known as Marullus Wherefore

Tribune who rebukes the crowd for honoring Caesar.

Varro

minor

Also known as Lucius Varro

Soldier who sleeps in Brutus's tent.