Excerpt from The Tragedy of the Caesars: A Study of the Characters of the Caesars of the Julian and Claudian Houses Having been obliged by lack of health to spend two consecutive winters in Italy, I found my attention arrested, and then engrossed, by the collections of portrait - busts of the ancient Romans in the various Museums. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Marcus Brutus, a Roman politician, considers Emperor Julius Caesar to be a friend, but a senator—Caius Cassius—convinces Brutus that Caesar has too much power. Brutus would rather Rome be a republic than an empire ruled by a tyrant, so he participates in a conspiracy to kill Caesar. Though Brutus believes his actions will benefit Rome, Caesar's murder brings about more bloodshed, including Brutus's own. The play examines friendship and patriotism, the succession of leadership, and the roles of fate and free will. Shakespeare wrote this drama, rooted in Roman history, in 1599; it was published in 1623, after Shakespeare's death. This is an unabridged edition of the tragic play.