How to read the table
This page lines up four accounts of the murder of Julius Caesar on the same questions. Three are ancient histories: Suetonius’ Life of Julius Caesar, Plutarch’s Life of Caesar (with his Life of Brutus where it adds something), and Book 44 of Cassius Dio’s Roman History. The fourth is Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, which is a play, not a history, but is the version most readers know.
Each cell paraphrases what that text says, with short quotations where the exact words matter. A dash means the passages this guide uses do not address the point; it does not mean the writer says it did not happen. Where a writer flags something as a report or a story, the cell says so. The ancient texts are read in the Loeb translations as reproduced on LacusCurtius, and the play in the Project Gutenberg text, with the Folger line number for the famous line.
Before the meeting
| Question | Suetonius | Plutarch | Cassius Dio | Shakespeare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who led the plot | More than sixty men, led by Gaius Cassius and Marcus and Decimus Brutus (80.4) | Brutus and Cassius, with Decimus Brutus Albinus as a partner (Caesar 62, 64) | Brutus and Cassius, with many others; he names Trebonius and Decimus Brutus (44.13 to 44.14) | Brutus and Cassius, with Casca, Decius, Cinna, Metellus Cimber, Trebonius and Ligarius on stage |
| Why the Senate | A meeting was called for the Ides in the Hall of Pompey, and they preferred it to other plans (80.4) | - | Caesar would least expect harm there; swords could be carried in document boxes; gladiators waited in Pompey’s Theatre (44.16) | - |
| The warning | The soothsayer Spurinna, while Caesar sacrificed: danger not later than the Ides of March(81.2) |
An unnamed seer, in a story told by many(63.5) |
Soothsayers and dreams; one soothsayer had warned him to beware of that day(44.17 to 44.18) |
A soothsayer in the crowd: Beware the Ides of March.(1.2) |
| The reply on the day | Caesar mocks Spurinna; the Ides have come but not gone (81.4) | Caesar jokes; the seer answers that they have come but not gone (63.6) | Caesar jokes; the soothsayer, they say, answers that the day has come but is not past (44.18) | Ay, Caesar; but not gone.(3.1) |
| Calpurnia’s dream | The pediment of the house fell and Caesar was stabbed in her arms (81.3) | She held her murdered husband; some say she saw an ornament on the house torn down, a version from Livy (63.9) | The house fell in ruins and Caesar, wounded, took refuge in her bosom (44.17) | Caesar reports she cried out three times in her sleep (2.2) |
| Who brought Caesar | Decimus Brutus urged him not to disappoint the Senate (81.4) | Decimus Brutus Albinus mocked the seers and led him out by the hand (64) | The plotters sent Decimus Brutus, thought to be his devoted friend (44.18) | Decius Brutus talks him round (2.2) |
| A written warning | A note revealing the plot, kept unread with other papers (81.4) | A roll from Artemidorus of Cnidus, which the crowd stopped him reading; some say Artemidorus never reached him (65) | A little roll setting out the plot, received but not read (44.18) | Artemidorus: Hail, Caesar! Read this schedule.(3.1) |
The attack
| Question | Suetonius | Plutarch | Cassius Dio | Shakespeare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The place | The Hall of Pompey (80.4) | A hall with a statue of Pompey, dedicated by him as part of his theatre (66.1) | The senate-house; gladiators in Pompey’s Theatre nearby (44.16) | Headed “Before the Capitol” in the Project Gutenberg text; Antony later places the fall at Pompey’s statue (3.1, 3.2) |
| Mark Antony | - | Kept talking outside by Decimus Brutus Albinus (66.4) | Kept busy outside by Trebonius (44.19) | Trebonius draws him out of the way (3.1) |
| The signal | Tillius Cimber seizes his toga by both shoulders (82.1) | Tullius Cimber pulls his toga down from his neck (66.6) | One of them pulls his toga from his shoulder (44.19) | Metellus Cimber kneels to plead for his brother; Casca strikes (3.1) |
| The first blow | One of the Cascas, just below the throat (82.1) | Casca, in the neck, a shallow wound (66.7) | Not named; they attack from many sides (44.19) | Casca, in the neck, in the Project Gutenberg stage direction (3.1) |
| Caesar’s words | Why, this is violence!as he is seized; then only a groan at the first stroke (82.1 to 82.2) |
In Latin, to Casca: Accursed Casca, what does thou?(66.8) |
None: he could not say or do anything (44.19) | Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!(3.1, line 85 in the Folger edition) |
| Brutus | Rushes at him; some have written that Caesar said in Greek You too, my child?(82.2) |
Strikes him in the groin; some writers say Caesar then covered his head (66.11 to 66.12) | Strikes a powerful blow; some have added Thou, too, my son?(44.19) |
Strikes last, in the Project Gutenberg stage direction (3.1) |
The death and after
| Question | Suetonius | Plutarch | Cassius Dio | Shakespeare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Covering the face | Muffles his head in his robe and draws its lower folds down to fall decently (82.2) | Pulls his toga down over his head, as some writers say (66.12) | Dies veiling his face (44.19) | Described by Antony: And in his mantle muffling up his face,(3.2) |
| Where he fell | - | Against the pedestal of Pompey’s statue (66.12) | - | Even at the base of Pompey’s statue(3.2) |
| Wounds | three and twenty wounds; only the second, in the breast, was fatal in the physician Antistius’ view (82.2 to 82.3) |
For it is said that he received twenty-three(66.14) |
Many wounds (44.19) | Antony shows the cuts of Cassius, Casca and Brutus in the mantle (3.2) |
| Straight afterwards | The conspirators flee; three slaves carry the body home (82.3) | The senators flee; the conspirators march to the Capitol (67) | Outcry and panic in the hall and the city (44.20) | Cinna: Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!(3.1) |
| The writer’s verdict on the last words | His own account: a groan; the Greek question is what some have written | No words to Brutus | This is the truest account, of the silent death |
The Latin question and English reply |
Where they agree and differ
Read across the rows, the four accounts agree on a surprising amount. All three historians have the soothsayer’s warning and its reply on the day, Calpurnia’s frightening dream, Decimus Brutus fetching Caesar to the meeting and an unread written warning. All three have Caesar’s toga seized or pulled as the attack begins, and all three have him covering his face or head. Shakespeare keeps most of these, though he gives the covered face to Antony’s speech rather than to the stage.
They differ on the details that later became famous. Only Suetonius names the soothsayer. Only Plutarch gives Caesar a full sentence during the attack, and it is addressed to Casca. Suetonius and Dio both know a question to Brutus, both translate it from Greek, and both mark it as other people’s report. Dio judges the silent death the truest account. The writers also disagree on who kept Antony outside, Decimus in Plutarch’s Life of Caesar and Trebonius in Dio; in Shakespeare’s play it is Trebonius.
The number of wounds shows how a figure can harden. Suetonius states twenty-three as fact. Plutarch gives the same number with “it is said”. Dio says only “many”. A reader who knows only one of these writers might take the number as certain, or as doubtful; side by side, it is clear that the number was current but that at least one writer chose not to vouch for it.
The passages used
For readers who want to check the table against the texts, these are the passages it draws on. The numbers are chapter and section numbers as printed on LacusCurtius, and act and scene numbers for the play.
- Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar, chapters 80 to 82 (the plot, the omens and the murder), with chapter 50 on Servilia and chapters 84 to 89 on the funeral and its aftermath.
- Plutarch, Life of Caesar, chapters 62 to 67 (the plot to the day after the murder) and 69 (the fate of the conspirators); Life of Brutus, chapters 1 to 8, 29, 36, 52 and 53.
- Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book 44, chapters 11 to 20.
- Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 1 Scene 2, Act 2 Scene 2, Act 3 Scenes 1 and 2, Act 4 Scene 3 and Act 5 Scene 5.
The reading on Caesar’s last words discusses the most disputed row in detail, and the first reading explains the Latin and Greek.
Back to all readings