Read the extract from 'Julius Caesar' Act 5, Scene 1, given below and answer the questions that follow: Cassius: Then, if we lose this battle, You are contented to be led in triumph Through the streets of Rome? Brutus: No, Cassius, no: think not, thou noble Roman, That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome; He bears too great a mind. But this same day Must end that work the ides of March begun; And whether we shall meet again I know not. Therefore our everlasting farewell take: Forever, and forever, farewell, Cassius. If we do meet again, why, we shall smile; If not, why then, this parting was well made.
To what does Brutus refer when he says, 'the work which the ides of March begun'? How was 'that work' begun? What political change would take place in Rome if Brutus and Cassius lose this battle?
Topic: The ides of March
Answer
He refers to the assassination of Julius Caesar and the effort to save Rome from one-man rule; the battle of Philippi will decide whether that work succeeds or fails.
That work was begun on the ides of March (15 March), when the conspirators surrounded Caesar in the Capitol on the pretext of Metellus Cimber’s petition and stabbed him, Casca striking first and Brutus last.
If they lose, the republic they fought for is finished: Rome passes under the absolute rule of the triumvirs, Antony and Octavius, which is the very tyranny the conspirators killed Caesar to prevent.
The third part is the one that distinguishes strong answers: it asks for a political consequence, not a description of the battle. Say plainly that the republican cause dies with them — the irony of the play is that the murder meant to save the republic is what destroys it.