Julius Caesar: ThemeTracker

The LitCharts ThemeTracker is a mini-version of the entire LitChart. The ThemeTracker provides a quick timeline-style rundown of all the important plot points and allows you to track the themes throughout the work at a glance.

	1.1	The tribunes Flavius and Murellus encounter plebeians who have come to cheer Caesar’s victory over Pompey’s sons. Flavius and Murellus disperse the crowds and remove the laurel wreaths from Caesar’s statues.
	1.2	Caesar enters with other Romans in a victory procession. A soothsayer warns Caesar to “Beware the ides of March. Brutus and Cassius talk as the procession passes. Cassius and Brutus agree that they do not want Caesar to be made king of Rome, though Cassius’s reasons seem to be founded on envy while Brutus is concerned with maintaining Rome as a republic. The procession returns. Caesar comments to Antony that he doesn’t trust Cassius. Antony thinks that Cassius can be trusted. Casca tells Brutus and Cassius that during the procession Antony offered a crown to Caesar three times. Caesar refused each time, but seemed to find the refusal more difficult to make each time. Casca adds that Flavius and Murellus were removed as tribunes for taking the laurel wreaths from Caesar’s statues. Cassius, Casca, and Brutus agree to meet again the next day. Left alone, Cassius formulates a plan to ensure that the honorable Brutus takes his side against Caesar.
	1.3	Cicero and Casca run into each other on the street just after a storm. Casca confirms to Cicero that Caesar will be going to the Capitol the next day. Cassius and Casca agree that Caesar means to become king of Rome the next day, and both deplore it. Casca agrees to help Cassius thwart Caesar. Cassius reveals he has recruited others to his cause, but both Cassius and Casca agree that recruiting Brutus is crucial, because Brutus is so well-respected that he will give them legitimacy no matter what they have to do to stop Caesar.
	2.1	Brutus can’t sleep, and admits to himself that the only way to stop Caesar from becoming king is to kill him. Cassius, along with Casca and other co-conspirators, arrive at Brutus’s house. Cassius wants all the conspirators to take an oath to carry out their plan, but Brutus says that as men of Rome their word is enough. Cassius wants to kill Antony as well as Caesar, but Brutus counters that Antony will be harmless without Caesar. The conspirators leave and Portia enters. She begs Brutus to tell her what is going on. To prove that she is strong and trustworthy, she reveals that she has stabbed herself in the thigh.
	2.2	Caesar is woken by the storm. He is troubled by bad omens. Calpurnia, his wife, mentions additional bad omens and begs him not to go to the Capitol. Caesar responds that he is too powerful for any man to dare attack him. But in the face of Calpurnia’s begging he finally relents and agrees to stay home. Decius, a conspirator, arrives. When Caesar reveals that he won’t go to the Capitol, Decius says that the other Senators might mock him as being afraid to appear. Caesar decides to go to the Capitol after all. Brutus laments what he has to do.
	2.3	Artemidorus stands by the Capitol with a letter warning Caesar of the plot. He says that if he can’t give Caesar the letter, it proves the fates are against Caesar.
	2.4	Portia, at home, agonizes, wondering what has happened with the plot. She bemoans the weakness of women.
	3.1	On the way to the Capitol, the conspirators block Artemidorus from handing his letter to Caesar. As one conspirator draws Antony away, the other conspirators all stab Caesar. When he sees that Brutus is among the conspirators, Caesar says, “Et tu, Bruté,” then dies. The conspirators promise no one else will be hurt, and Brutus grants Antony’s request to speak at Caesar’s funeral. Left alone, Antony predicts a civil war will engulf Rome and learns that Octavius has arrived at Rome.
	3.2	The plebeians demand to know why Caesar was killed. Brutus explains that he loved Caesar but loved Rome more, and killed Caesar to save Rome from being ruled by a king. The crowd lauds Brutus and condemns Caesar. Brutus leaves. Antony gives a masterful speech through which he turns the plebeians back against the conspirators. By the end of the speech, Octavius has entered the city and Brutus and Cassius have had to flee from Rome.
	4.1	Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus plan how to rule Rome. Secretly, Antony and Octavius agree to get rid of Lepidus once Brutus and Cassius are defeated.
	4.2	Though fighting on the same side, Brutus and Cassius argue. Brutus feels that Cassius is acting corruptly. Cassius takes offense. Eventually, though, they reconcile. Brutus reveals that Portia has committed suicide out of fear that Antony will win. He is stoic about his wife’s death. Brutus and Cassius agree to march to Philippi to meet the forces of the Triumvirate (Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus) before the triumvirate can raise additional forces. Brutus tries to sleep, but sees the Ghost of Caesar, who promises to appear again at Philippi.
	5.1	Antony and Octavius deploy their troops, then meet with Brutus and Cassius. The four men taunt each other. Brutus and Cassius say farewell to each other. Cassius fears the bad omens surrounding his army.
	5.2	During the battle, Brutus sees a weak point in Octavius’s lines. He sends a message to his troops on Cassius’s wing with instructions to attack the weak point.
	5.3	Though the battle is a standstill, Cassius mistakenly thinks that his side is losing and the approaching riders are the enemy rather than messengers from Brutus. To avoid the humiliation of being captured, Cassius has one of his men run him through with a sword. Cassius dies.
	5.4	Antony’s men overrun Lucillius, one of Brutus’s allies. Antony spares Lucillius because he thinks he will be able to turn Lucillius into an ally.
	5.5	Knowing he is defeated and having seen Caesar’s ghost a second time, Brutus has his servant hold a sword and runs onto it, killing himself. The victorious Antony and Octavius praise the slain Brutus as “the noblest Roman of them all,” because he killed Caesar out of genuine concern for the future of Rome.