How Does Brutus Influence On Julius Caesar

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How Does Brutus Influence On Julius Caesar



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The great conspiracy against Julius Caesar - Kathryn Tempest

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Their atheism was based on a theory of atomism, which they were the first to propose. Everything in the universe, they argued, was made up of atoms, including the heavenly bodies; the gods did not exist. This knowledge was not a cause of despair but a cause of joy, they believed, since one of the greatest human pains is the pain caused by the fear of death and what lies beyond it. Thus there was no reason to fear it, because there was no divine judgment or afterlife. It is easy to see why Cicero, a man deeply involved in politics and the pursuit of glory, would find any doctrine that advocated the rejection of public life repulsive. It is also easy to see why someone concerned with the reform of character and conduct would reject public atheism, since fear of divine punishment often prevents people from acting immorally.

During his forced exile from politics at the end of his life, however, some of his letters claim that he has gone over to Epicureanism, presumably for the reasons he hated it previously. No longer able to take part in public life, the best he could hope for was the cultivation of private life and the pleasures that it had to offer. Since Cicero abandoned this idea as soon as the opportunity to return to public life arose, there is no reason to take his professed conversion seriously — unless we wish to see in it an example of changing his beliefs to reflect changing circumstances, and thus an example of his commitment to the Academy. Unfortunately, several of them have been lost almost entirely Hortensius , on the value of philosophy, the Consolation , which Cicero wrote to himself on the death of his beloved daughter Tullia in order to overcome his grief, and On Glory , almost totally lost and several of the others are available only in fragmentary condition notably the Laws , which Cicero may never have finished, and the Republic , fragments of which were only discovered in in the Vatican.

These will be discussed in more detail below. While each of them is dedicated and addressed to a particular individual or two, they were intended to be read by a wide audience, and even at the end of his life Cicero never gave up entirely on the hope that the Republic and his influence would be restored. Hence these are not purely philosophical writings, but were designed with a political purpose in mind, and we are entitled to wonder whether Cicero is being entirely candid in the opinions that he expresses. Also, the dialogue form is useful for an author who wishes to express a number of opinions without having to endorse one. We should not assume too quickly that a particular character speaks for Cicero.

Instead we should assume that, unless he explicitly says otherwise, Cicero wanted all the viewpoints presented to be considered seriously, even if some or all of them have weaknesses. The second category is the speeches Cicero made as a lawyer and as a Senator, about 60 of which remain. Many of them also describe the corruption and immorality of the Roman elite. In addition, the speeches that we have are not verbatim recordings of what Cicero actually said, but are versions that he polished later for publication the modern American analogy would be to the Congressional Record , which allows members of Congress the opportunity to revise the text of their speeches before they are published in the Record.

In some cases such as the Second Philippic the speech was never delivered at all, but was merely published in written form, again with some political goal in mind. Finally, roughly letters to and from mostly from Cicero have been preserved. Most of them were addressed to his close friend Atticus or his brother Quintius, but some correspondence to and from some other Romans including famous Romans such as Caesar has also been preserved. The letters often make an interesting contrast to the philosophic dialogues, as they deal for the most part not with lofty philosophical matters but with the mundane calculations, compromises, flatteries, and manipulations that were part of politics in Rome and which would be familiar to any politician today.

The serious student of Cicero, however, will not want to ignore them. Written while Cicero was still a teenager, it is a handbook on oratory. Cicero later dismissed it and argued that his other oratorical works had superceded it. A lengthy treatise, in the form of a dialogue, on the ideal orator. While it is full of detail which can be tedious to those who are not deeply interested in the theory of rhetoric, it also contains useful discussions of the nature of and the relationships among law, philosophy, and rhetoric. Cicero places rhetoric above both law and philosophy, arguing that the ideal orator would have mastered both law and philosophy including natural philosophy and would add eloquence besides.

He argues that in the old days philosophy and rhetoric were taught together, and that it is unfortunate that they have now been separated. The best orator would also be the best human being, who would understand the correct way to live, act upon it by taking a leading role in politics, and instruct others in it through speeches, through the example of his life, and through making good laws. This dialogue is, unfortunately, in an extremely mutilated condition. It describes the ideal commonwealth, such as might be brought about by the orator described in On the Orator. In doing so it tries to provide philosophical underpinnings for existing Roman institutions and to demonstrate that Roman history has been essentially the increasing perfection of the Republic, which is superior to any other government because it is a mixed government.

By this Cicero means that it combines elements of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy in the right balance; the contemporary reader may well disagree. But even this government can be destroyed and is being destroyed by the moral decay of the aristocracy. Thus Cicero describes the importance of an active life of virtue, the foundations of community, including the community of all human beings, the role of the statesman, and the concept of natural law. It also includes the famous Dream of Scipio. This dialogue is also badly mutilated, and may never have been finished.

In it Cicero lays out the laws that would be followed in the ideal commonwealth described in On the Republic. Therefore any valid law is rooted in nature, and any law not rooted in nature such as a law made by a tyrant is no law at all. The gods also share in reason, and because of this they can be said to be part of a community with humanity. They care for us, and punish and reward us as appropriate. Much of what remains of this dialogue is devoted to religious law. This dialogue too is in a mutilated condition. It is a history of oratory in Greece and Rome, listing hundreds of orators and their distinguishing characteristics, weaknesses as well as strengths. There is also some discussion of oratory in the abstract.

Such a person will have the tools necessary to become a leader of the commonwealth. Not a dialogue; Cicero lays out six Stoic principles called paradoxes which the average listener would not be likely to agree with and tries to make them both understandable and persuasive to such a listener. It is, he says, an exercise in turning the specialized jargon of the Stoics into plain speech for his own amusement which obviously does not require Cicero to actually agree with any of the Stoic beliefs.

The beliefs discussed are as follows: moral worth is the only good; virtue is sufficient for happiness; all sins and virtues are equal; every fool is insane; only the wise man is really free; only the wise man is really rich. These topics are largely taken up again in the Tusculan Disputations. It emphasizes that the orator must be able to prove things to the audience, please them, and sway their emotions. This text is lost except for fragments cited by other authors.

Cicero wrote it to diminish his grief over the death of his daughter Tullia through the use of philosophy. From his letters we know that it was not entirely successful. It is written in order to praise philosophy, which alone can bring true happiness through the development of reason and the overcoming of passions. In antiquity it was widely read and very popular; it was instrumental in converting St. Augustine to Christianity. The positions of the various philosophical schools on epistemology how we can perceive and understand the world and the possibility of knowing truth are set out and refuted by the participants in this dialogue of which we have different parts of two editions. Cicero also incorporates a detailed history of the development of these schools following the death of Socrates diagrammed nicely in MacKendrick; see below.

A dialogue which sets out the case, pro and con, of the several philosophic schools on the question of the end or purpose what Aristotle called the telos of human life. As with Academics , the reader must decide which case is most persuasive. Another attempt to popularize philosophy at Rome and demonstrate that the Romans and their language had the potential to achieve the very highest levels of philosophy.

The first book presents the argument that death is an evil; this argument is then refuted. The second book presents and refutes the argument that pain is an evil. The third book argues that the wise man will not suffer from anxiety and fear. In the fourth book Cicero demonstrates that the wise man does not suffer from excessive joy or lust. And in the fifth and final book Cicero argues that virtue, found through philosophy, is sufficient for a happy life. These positions are all compatible with Stoicism. This dialogue, along with the next two, was intended by Cicero to form a trilogy on religious questions. It offers desciptions of literally dozens of varieties of religion.

Emphasis is especially placed on the Epicurean view the gods exist but are indifferent about human beings , which is described and then refuted, and the Stoic view the gods govern the world, love human beings, and after death reward the good and punish the bad , which is similarly stated and refuted. At the end of the dialogue the characters have not reached agreement.

This dialogue too, according to Cicero, is meant to set out arguments both for and against a topic, in this case the validity of divination predicting the future through methods such as astrology , reading animal entrails, watching the flight of birds, etc. The case for the validity of divination is presented in the first book and then crushed in the second in which Cicero himself is the main speaker. While Cicero explicitly says that he reserves judgment, it is hard to conclude that Cicero approved of divination, which he saw as drawing on superstition rather than religion.

Religion was useful because it helped to control human behavior and could be used as a tool for public policy; and in this context divination could be useful too as when an unwise political decision was prevented by the announcement that the omens were unfavorable. The text is fragmented. The topic discussed is whether or not human beings can be said to have free will, so much of the book deals with theories of causation and the meaning of truth and falsehood. Cicero apparently rejects the idea that fate determines all our actions and argues that human beings, to a significant extent, have free will. In this dialogue, we learn that the sufferings of old age do not affect everyone equally but in fact are dependent on character; old men of good character continue to enjoy life, though in different ways than in their youth, while men of bad character have new miseries added to their previous ones.

Nothing is more natural than to age and die, and if we are to live in accordance with nature a Stoic teaching we should face death calmly. If one has lived well, there are many pleasant memories to enjoy, as well as prestige and the intellectual pleasures that are highest of all. This dialogue describes the nature of true friendship, which is possible only between good men, who are virtuous and follow nature. This friendship is based on virtue, and while it offers material advantages it does not aim at them or even seek them.

The dialogue goes on to describe the bonds of friendship among lesser men, which are stronger the more closely they are related but which exist even in more distant relationships. The conclusion is reached that all human beings are bonded together, along with the gods, in a community made up of the cosmos as a whole and based on shared reason. There is, however, awareness of the fact that in the real world friendship can be a difficult thing to maintain due to political pressures and adversity. A toolkit for orators on the science of argument, touching on the law, rhetoric, and philosophy, and setting out the various kinds of arguments available to the orator, rules of logic, and the kinds of questions he may find himself facing.

Written in the form of a letter to his son Marcus, then in his late teens and studying philosophy in Athens though, we can gather from the letters, not studying it all that seriously , but intended from the start to reach a wider audience. Cicero addresses the topic of duty including both the final purpose of life, which defines our duties, and the way in which duties should be performed , and says that he will follow the Stoics in this area, but only as his judgment requires.

More explicitly, the letter discusses how to determine what is honorable, and which of two honorable things is more honorable; how to determine what is expedient and how to judge between two expedient things; and what to do when the honorable and the expedient seem to conflict. Cicero asserts that they can only seem to conflict; in reality they never do, and if they seem to it simply shows that we do not understand the situation properly. The honorable action is the expedient and vice-versa. The bonds among all human beings are described, and young Marcus is urged to follow nature and wisdom, along with whatever political activity might still be possible, rather than seeking pleasure and indolence.

He also writes to offer moral lessons, rather than simply record events. Both of these texts are available online and in inexpensive Penguin editions. Manfred Fuhrmann, Cicero and the Roman Republic , uses the same approach and also includes material from speeches and the philosophical writings. Its brevity makes it a useful starting point and overview. Weidemann even finds room for photographs and drawings, which makes this book perhaps too short. Smith, Cicero the Statesman , focuses on the period from 71 B.

There are also available a large number of general histories of the Roman Republic and empire which the reader is encouraged to explore. They include the Latin text on the left hand pages and the English translation on the right hand pages, which is obviously of particular use to one who knows or is learning Latin. Zetzel and On Duties edited by M. Griffin and E. Powell, editor, Cicero the Philosopher: Twelve Papers. Andrew R. It was extremely helpful in the preparation of this article. Cicero —43 B. Cicero and Stoicism and Peripateticism Cicero believed that these two schools taught essentially the same things, and that the difference between them was whether virtue was the only thing human beings should pursue or whether it was merely the best thing to be pursued.

Cicero and Epicureanism For the Epicurean philosophy Cicero had only disdain throughout most of his life, though his best friend Atticus was an Epicurean. On Invention Written while Cicero was still a teenager, it is a handbook on oratory. On the Orator A lengthy treatise, in the form of a dialogue, on the ideal orator. On the Republic This dialogue is, unfortunately, in an extremely mutilated condition.

On the Laws This dialogue is also badly mutilated, and may never have been finished. Brutus This dialogue too is in a mutilated condition. Stoic Paradoxes Not a dialogue; Cicero lays out six Stoic principles called paradoxes which the average listener would not be likely to agree with and tries to make them both understandable and persuasive to such a listener. Consolation This text is lost except for fragments cited by other authors. Hortensius his text is heavily fragmented and we can determine little more than its broad outline.

Academics The positions of the various philosophical schools on epistemology how we can perceive and understand the world and the possibility of knowing truth are set out and refuted by the participants in this dialogue of which we have different parts of two editions. On Ends A dialogue which sets out the case, pro and con, of the several philosophic schools on the question of the end or purpose what Aristotle called the telos of human life.

Tusculan Disputations Another attempt to popularize philosophy at Rome and demonstrate that the Romans and their language had the potential to achieve the very highest levels of philosophy. On the Nature of the Gods This dialogue, along with the next two, was intended by Cicero to form a trilogy on religious questions. On Divination This dialogue too, according to Cicero, is meant to set out arguments both for and against a topic, in this case the validity of divination predicting the future through methods such as astrology , reading animal entrails, watching the flight of birds, etc.

On Fate The text is fragmented. It is a drama famous for the difficulty of deciding which role to emphasise. The characters rotate around each other like the plates of a Calder mobile. Touch one and it affects the position of all the others. Raise one, another sinks. But they keep coming back into a precarious balance. The play was probably one of Shakespeare's first to be performed at the Globe Theatre. After the theatres re-opened at the start of the Restoration era, the play was revived by Thomas Killigrew 's King's Company in Charles Hart initially played Brutus, as did Thomas Betterton in later productions. Julius Caesar was one of the very few Shakespeare plays that was not adapted during the Restoration period or the eighteenth century.

One of the earliest cultural references to the play came in Shakespeare's own Hamlet. Prince Hamlet asks Polonius about his career as a thespian at university, Polonius replies "I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed i' th' Capitol. Brutus killed me. The police procedural combines Shakespeare, Dragnet , and vaudeville jokes and was first broadcast on The Ed Sullivan Show. The movie Me and Orson Welles , based on a book of the same name by Robert Kaplow , is a fictional story centred around Orson Welles ' famous production of Julius Caesar at the Mercury Theatre.

In the Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit , some of the character Beatty's last words are "There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, for I am armed so strong in honesty that they pass me as an idle wind, which I respect not! The play's line "the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves", spoken by Cassius in Act I, scene 2, is often referenced in popular culture. The line gave its name to the J. The same line was quoted in Edward R. This speech and the line were recreated in the film Good Night, and Good Luck. The titles of Agatha Christie novel Taken at the Flood , titled There Is a Tide in its American edition, refer to an iconic line of Brutus: "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.

Julius Caesar has been adapted to a number of film productions, including:. Modern adaptions of the play have often made contemporary political references, [44] with Caesar depicted as resembling a variety of political leaders, including Huey Long , Margaret Thatcher , and Tony Blair. Hartley , the Robinson Chair of Shakespeare Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte , states that this is a fairly "common trope" of Julius Caesar performances: "Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, the rule has been to create a recognisable political world within the production.

And often people in the title role itself look like or feel like somebody either in recent or current politics. Look what happens: Caesar is assassinated to stop him becoming a dictator. Result: civil war , massive slaughter, creation of an emperor, execution of many who sympathized with the conspiracy. Doesn't look much like a successful result for the conspirators to me. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.

The specific problem is: tone. Please help improve this article if you can. September Learn how and when to remove this template message. Play by William Shakespeare. This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. February See also: Shakespeare on screen and List of William Shakespeare screen adaptations. Julius Caesar. New Cambridge Shakespeare 2 ed. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN Arthur Humphreys ed. Oxford University Press. Julius Caesar in western culture. Oxford, England: Blackwell.

Blakemore The Riverside Shakespeare. Houghton Mifflin Co. Neither play has survived. Chambers, Elizabethan Stage , Vol. Frank Baum. Archived from the original on 16 December Retrieved 13 March Run-Through: A Memoir. Retrieved 5 November This is Orson Welles. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. The New York Times. Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu. New York: Viking. Retrieved 7 November Eric Blom , Vol. VII, p. The Riverside Shakespeare Company's lively production makes you think of timeless ambition and antilibertarians anywhere.

British Film Institute. But is it any good , Washington Post 16 June The Guardian. Retrieved 17 June The Telegraph. The Raw Story. Retrieved 23 June Right Wing Watch. Boyce, Charles. Chambers, Edmund Kerchever. The Elizabethan Stage. Halliday, F. A Shakespeare Companion — Shakespeare Library ser. Baltimore, Penguin, Houppert, Joseph W. South Atlantic Bulletin. Kahn, Coppelia. Julius Caesar: New Critical Essays. Horst Zander, ed.

New York: Routledge,