Why is the play titled Julius Caesar and not Marcus Brutus?

Julius Caesar is a play written by William Shakespeare, based on the assassination

of the man who was going to obtain the charge of supreme leader of the Roman
Empire, and the consequent civil war. When we read the title on the book, we open
it expecting to find the story of his life, but the play starts just when he has only a
few days of life remaining. He is not the key character in the play, but he is very
important, because he is the one who makes the whole action take place. He is the
one threatening the republican system established four hundred years ago in
Rome. He is the one who tries to hide his ambitions by refusing the crown thrice
when the plebeians offer it to him. He is responsible for the creation of the
conspirator group leaded by Cassius, which will murder him and will start a civil
war between Mark Antony and Brutus.

Brutus, on the other side, is a close friend to Caesar, but he is manipulated by

Cassius to see how Caesar is a threat to Roman democracy, and he realizes that
Rome is more important for him that his friend (“Not that I loved Caesar less, but
that I love Rome more.”). This is why he is finally moved to stab Caesar by his back
making him believe he was going to be crowned. In this moment, Brutus becomes
the new leader of the conspiracy, leaving Cassius behind him. Brutus and Mark
Antony begin to fight each other as to gain plebeian support in the following civil
war.

On one side, we can see Brutus during the whole play, while we don’t see Caesar
during all of it. This would be an argument to title the play Marcus Brutus. Brutus
has a lot of action in the play, whereas Caesar is seen only in the first scenes, and
mainly covered by the secret action of Cassius, who is preparing his group.

On the other side, we can say that the play is called Julius Caesar because the side
that finishes wining the civil war is the one that sympathised with Julius Caesar
and his political ideas. These are Mark Antony and Octavius, who defend Caesar’s
ideal in civil war, and finally win, defeating the enemy who had tried to defend
their democracy. And in a way, they had done, because although the party
following Caesar had won, Caesar was dead, and he was the one ho had defeated
Pompey, and he was the one who people adore when he entered Rome. I think that
Brutus died with a good cause, because Octavius is not going to be accepted as a
supreme leader as Caesar was, so democracy could be achieved again.

In conclusion, I think that both Julius Caesar and Marcus Brutus are very important
characters in this play, and they were also for the history of Rome. But I also think
that the play was titled with the name of the general who started the entire riot,
not meaning he was more important than the other man. I mean, if Julius Caesar
hadn’t defeated Pompey and hadn’t cause the reaction he caused in the plebeians
who wanted him to be crowned, we would have never known Brutus, nor Cassius
either. Also, the title refers to the effect that Caesar had in the Roman Empire, that
is million times greater than Brutus’s, and that is why nobody know him, although
he was as great as a man as Julius Caesar, and he defended his ideals and his rights.
But as I said before, for the title, the name we need is the one who started
everything, and that finally continues with his successor, meaning that he had
physically died, but his ideas hadn’t.

Agustin Sargiotto
Agustin Sargiotto