叛徒们為了證明他们这么做是为了罗马,而不是为了自己,在殺人後没有逃离现场。凯撒死后,布鲁圖斯进行演讲为自己辩护,这时他得到了公众的支持。然而马克·安东尼在凯撒的尸体旁进行了更为巧妙优雅的演讲——開場白是"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears"(“各位朋友,各位罗马人,各位同胞,请你们听我说…”)[21]——成功的操控了民众的情绪,使聽眾反對刺杀。与布鲁圖斯的理性不同,他的修辞更为复杂:安东尼首先提醒大家凯撒对罗马的贡献,对穷人的怜悯。凯撒在牧神节上拒绝称王,并以此質疑布鲁圖斯的說法。他向公众展示了凯撒滴满鲜血的尸体,使得公众为他们倒下的英雄涕泪相加;他阅读了凯撒的遗嘱,即:每位罗马公民都会收到75德拉克马,安东尼虽然自称反对暴乱,但依然使愤怒的民众将叛徒逐出罗马。在混乱中,无辜的诗人秦纳被错认为是叛徒路奇乌斯·秦纳而被误杀。
麦伦·泰勒[38]在他的论文《莎士比亚的<凯撒大帝>与历史的讽刺》中,对比了凯撒与布鲁塔斯的逻辑与哲学。凯撒的哲学被认为是直觉的,认为跟着感觉走就是正确的;因此,当他在被刺前对卡西乌斯感到不安,这个直觉不假。布鲁塔斯被描绘成类似凯撒的人,但他的热心迷惑了自己的逻辑,在最后的V.v.50–51中,他说 “Caesar, now be still:/ I kill'd not thee with half so good a will”.[39]这个解释是有瑕疵的,因为"good a will" 更可能是“不正确的判断”,而不太像是“处于好意”。
「Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears…」,摘自第三幕,第二場:這是馬克·安東尼在凱撒的公開喪禮上之致詞的開頭,意即「各位朋友,各位罗马人,各位同胞,请你们听我说…」,格式為抑揚格五音步(iambic pentameter)。此段致詞令到本來支持布魯圖等密謀者的人民轉而反對他們,使布魯圖等必須逃離羅馬。
^Shakespeare, William; Arthur Humphreys (Editor). Julius Caesar. Oxford University Press. 1998: 1 [2010-03-24]. ISBN 0192836064. (原始内容存档于2011-07-21).引文使用过时参数coauthors (帮助)
^Named in Parallel Lives and quoted in Spevack, Marvin. Julius Caesar. New Cambridge Shakespeare 2. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 2004: 74. ISBN 978-0-521-53513-7.
^Richard Edes's Latin play Caesar Interfectus (1582?) would not qualify. The Admiral's Men had an anonymous Caesar and Pompey in their repertory in 1594–5, and another play, Caesar's Fall, or the Two Shapes, written by Thomas Dekker, Michael Drayton, Thomas Middleton, Anthony Munday, and John Webster, in 1601-2, too late for Platter's reference. Neither play has survived. The anonymous Caesar's Revenge dates to 1606, while George Chapman's Caesar and Pompey dates from ca. 1613. E. K. Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, Vol. 2, p. 179; Vol. 3, pp. 259, 309; Vol. 4, p. 4.
Houppert, Joseph W. “Fatal Logic in ‘Julius Caesar’ ”. South Atlantic Bulletin. Vol. 39, No.4. Nov. 1974. 3–9.
Kahn, Coppelia. "Passions of some difference": Friendship and Emulation in Julius Caesear. Julius Caesar: New Critical Essays. Horst Zander, ed. New York: Routledge, 2005. 271–283.
Parker, Barbara L. "The Whore of Babylon and Shakespeares's Julius Caesar." Studies in English Literature (Rice); Spring95, Vol. 35 Issue 2, p. 251, 19p.
Reynolds, Robert C. “Ironic Epithet in Julius Caesar”. Shakespeare Quarterly. Vol. 24. No.3. 1973. 329–333.
Taylor, Myron. "Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and the Irony of History". Shakespeare Quarterly. Vol. 24, No. 3. 1973. 301–308.