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Character analysis

Cicero

in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Cicero is a minor yet symbolically significant character in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, making a brief appearance but leaving a lasting impression as Rome's most renowned orator and statesman. He first appears during the Lupercalia procession (Act I, Scene ii), where Casca mentions that Caesar suffered an epileptic seizure in front of the crowd and that Cicero "spoke Greek" to some senators — a detail that highlights Cicero's intellectual detachment and tendency to communicate in ways that ordinary Romans find difficult to understand. He reappears in the frightening storm of Act I, Scene iii, calmly walking through the chaos while Casca cowers in fear. His calmness in the face of ominous signs portrays him as a man of clear rationality and self-control.

Despite his importance, Cicero is intentionally left out of the conspiracy. When Cassius suggests bringing him into the fold, Brutus firmly dismisses the idea, stating that Cicero would never follow a plan he didn't create himself — a clever psychological insight that reveals both Cicero's pride and Brutus's controlling tendencies. This exclusion has dire consequences: Cicero is later reported dead in Act IV, Scene iii, executed by the triumvirate's orders. His offstage death subtly implicates Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus as ruthless political figures willing to eliminate even the most esteemed minds of Rome.

Cicero's defining characteristics — gravitas, intellectual independence, and political influence — make his marginalization all the more impactful. He serves as a moral touchstone: a legitimate figure of Roman authority whose sidelining and eventual death signify the irreversible decline of the republic.

About this character

Form
Play
Author
William Shakespeare
First published
1599

The person01–03

01·Who they are

Who is Cicero?

Cicero enters Julius Caesar as a man whose reputation precedes him so thoroughly that Shakespeare barely needs to put him onstage. Rome's most celebrated orator and senior statesman, he appears in only two scenes yet serves as a living index of republican legitimacy. His first appearance is wordless to the audience: in Act I, Scene ii, Casca reports that after Caesar's epileptic fit Cicero "spoke Greek" to nearby senators — a phrase that has since become proverbial but which here signals something precise. Cicero communicates in a register that ordinary Romans cannot access. He is intellectually sovereign, and that sovereignty makes him both admirable and, for the conspirators, awkward. His second appearance, in Act I, Scene iii, shows him walking serenely through a storm that reduces the streetwise Casca to trembling incoherence. Shakespeare captures him in two swift strokes: a man of words so refined they become foreign, and a man of nerve so steady that natural chaos cannot disturb it.

02·Arc & motivation

What is Cicero's arc and motivation?

Cicero has no arc in the conventional dramatic sense — he does not change, choose, or act. His trajectory is entirely shaped by the choices of others, and that passivity is itself the point. He moves from respected elder statesman to excluded bystander to proscribed corpse, never having been consulted about any of it. His motivation, to the extent that the text implies one, is intellectual and political self-possession. Brutus's dismissal in Act II, Scene i — "he will never follow any thing / That other men begin" — offers insight into what drives Cicero: an absolute refusal to be a subordinate instrument. He would join a cause he authored; he will not join one he inherits. Whether this is pride or principle remains productively unresolved.

03·Key moments

What are Cicero's key moments?

  • Act I, Scene ii (reported): Casca's account of Cicero speaking Greek after Caesar's seizure establishes him as intellectually apart from the crowd. The episode is comic on the surface — Casca admits he didn't understand a word — but it quietly marks Cicero as someone operating on a different political frequency from everyone around him.
  • Act I, Scene iii: His calm transit through the supernatural storm is the play's single most vivid image of him. While Casca catalogues horrors — lions, men on fire, a screech owl at noon — Cicero passes through undisturbed and returns home. The contrast positions him as the play's most genuinely rational figure.
  • Act II, Scene i (exclusion): Cassius proposes Cicero; Brutus kills the idea immediately. This veto is arguably the conspiracy's most consequential structural error, eliminating the one voice that might have matched or neutralized Antony's oratory at the Forum.
  • Act IV, Scene iii (reported death): Messala confirms Cicero's execution by the triumvirs' proscription list. He dies offstage, undefended, unmentioned at length — a disposal rather than a death scene, which serves a specific purpose.

The cast04–05

04·Relationships

What are Cicero's most important relationships?

With Casca: Casca is the audience's only direct witness to Cicero, and the relationship between reporter and subject is ironic. Casca is excitable, populist, and easily frightened; Cicero is detached, aristocratic, and unflappable. Everything Casca tells us about Cicero inadvertently flatters the man he is describing, since Casca's own panic makes Cicero's composure look extraordinary.

With Cassius: Cassius wants Cicero in the conspiracy for purely instrumental reasons — his "silver hairs" would "purchase us a good opinion." This portrays Cicero in a cynical light: as brand value rather than conscience. Cassius does not want Cicero's wisdom; he seeks Cicero's prestige.

With Brutus: Their non-relationship defines the conspiracy's boundaries. Brutus's assessment of Cicero — that he cannot follow — is almost certainly correct, but the decision to exclude him substitutes Rome's finest persuader with Brutus's own earnest rigidity. The Forum speeches and their aftermath highlight the cost of this choice.

With Antony and Octavius: The triumvirs' proscription list in Act IV, Scene i, names Cicero among those condemned. Antony signs off on his old political opponent without apparent hesitation, marking his transformation from grief-stricken loyalist to cold power-broker. Octavius's co-signing indicates that the new Rome has no room for the old republic's most distinguished voice.

05·Connected characters

How is Cicero connected to the other characters?

Casca

Casca reports Cicero's calm, enigmatic behavior during both the Lupercalia episode and the supernatural storm (Act I, Scenes ii–iii), serving as the audience's primary lens onto Cicero's character. Cicero's composed reaction to the storm contrasts sharply with Casca's terror, highlighting Cicero's rationalist temperament.

Cassius

Cassius proposes bringing Cicero into the conspiracy, valuing his reputation as a way to lend the plot legitimacy and public credibility. His willingness to recruit Cicero shows how the conspirators view him as a political asset rather than a genuine ally.

Marcus Brutus

Brutus overrules Cassius and vetoes Cicero's inclusion, insisting that Cicero will never follow another man's lead. This decision is pivotal: it reveals Brutus's controlling idealism and deprives the conspiracy of Rome's most persuasive voice, arguably contributing to its ultimate failure.

Mark Antony

Antony is among the triumvirs who order Cicero's execution in the proscription scene (Act IV, Scene i). Cicero's death at Antony's hands underscores Antony's transformation from Caesar's loyal friend into a cold-blooded political survivor.

Octavius Caesar

Octavius co-signs the proscription list that condemns Cicero, establishing early in his arc that he is a calculating ruler willing to eliminate even Rome's most distinguished citizens for political security.

Julius Caesar

Though they share no direct scene together, Cicero's historical stature as a defender of the republic implicitly contrasts with Caesar's monarchical ambitions, situating Cicero as a representative of the senatorial order Caesar's rise threatens.

Study06–07

06·Questions

Questions readers ask about Cicero

Why does Brutus exclude Cicero from the conspiracy in Julius Caesar?

Brutus excludes Cicero because he believes Cicero "will never follow any thing / That other men begin" (Act II, Scene i), meaning Cicero's fierce intellectual independence makes him impossible to recruit as a follower rather than a leader. This veto is pivotal: it deprives the conspiracy of Rome's most persuasive orator and leaves Brutus's own earnest rigidity as the group's rhetorical voice, with devastating consequences at the Forum.

How does Cicero die in Julius Caesar?

Cicero is executed offstage by order of the triumvirs' proscription list, confirmed by Messala in Act IV, Scene iii. He is never given a death scene; his end is reported briefly and passed over quickly, a formal choice that enacts the very silencing his character represents. His execution also marks Antony's transformation from Caesar's grieving loyalist into a ruthless political survivor.

What does Casca mean when he says Cicero "spoke Greek" in Julius Caesar?

Casca means that Cicero literally spoke in Greek to nearby senators after Caesar's epileptic fit (Act I, Scene ii), and that Casca himself could not understand a word of it. The detail signals that Cicero operates on an intellectual register entirely beyond ordinary Romans. Shakespeare uses it to establish Cicero as a figure of extraordinary erudition — admirable but politically isolating.

How does Cicero behave during the storm in Act I, Scene iii?

Cicero walks calmly through the supernatural storm while Casca trembles with fear, then simply returns home, untroubled by the omens that reduce everyone else to panic. This contrast positions Cicero as the play's most genuinely rational figure. His composure is made even more striking because it is reported through Casca, whose own terror inadvertently magnifies how extraordinary Cicero's self-control appears.

What is Cassius's reason for wanting Cicero in the conspiracy?

Cassius wants Cicero's involvement purely for the credibility his reputation would lend the plot; his "silver hairs" would "purchase us a good opinion" among the Roman public. Cassius is not seeking Cicero's wisdom or counsel; he wants Cicero's prestige as a political asset. This cynical, instrumental view of Rome's greatest statesman reveals the conspirators' priorities.

What is Cicero's relationship with Mark Antony in Julius Caesar?

Cicero and Antony share no direct scene, but Antony signs off on Cicero's execution as part of the triumvirs' proscription list (Act IV, Scene i), condemning his old political rival without apparent hesitation. This moment is crucial to Antony's character arc: the man who wept over Caesar's body has become a cold-blooded power-broker willing to eliminate even Rome's most distinguished republican voice.

Is Cicero a villain or a hero in Julius Caesar?

Cicero is neither villain nor hero; he is a moral touchstone who never fully enters the action. His gravitas, rationality, and republican legitimacy make him the closest figure the play offers to an ideal Roman statesman, yet he is sidelined, excluded from the conspiracy, and ultimately executed. Shakespeare uses his marginalization to suggest that reason and genuine political authority have no place in a Rome collapsing into violence and demagoguery.

What is Cicero's significance to the theme of the Roman Republic in Julius Caesar?

Cicero functions as a living symbol of the republic itself — respected by all, excluded from the crisis that destroys it, and ultimately killed by the autocratic forces that emerge from that crisis. His exclusion from the conspiracy mirrors the republic's own exclusion from Rome's political future. His offstage death, barely noted amid the chaos of civil war, marks the republic's quiet but irreversible collapse.

07·Essay angles

Use this in your essay

Tool · Essay angles

  • Exclusion as dramatic irony: Argue that Brutus's veto of Cicero represents the conspiracy's fatal structural flaw

    that the very independence Brutus cites as a reason to exclude him is the quality the conspirators most needed at the Forum.

  • The onstage/offstage issue: Examine how Shakespeare uses Cicero's near-total absence from the action to comment on the marginalization of reason and legitimate oratory in a Rome consumed by violence and demagoguery.

  • Cicero as republican symbol: Build a thesis on Cicero functioning as a symbol of the republic itself

    respected, excluded from the crisis that destroys it, and ultimately killed by the forces emerging from that crisis.

  • Language and power: Using Casca's "he spoke Greek" report alongside Antony's Forum speech, explore what the play suggests about who controls public discourse and whether intellectual eloquence is a political asset or a liability in times of upheaval.

  • The reported death as political statement: Analyze Shakespeare's choice to have Cicero die offstage

    briefly noted, quickly passed over — as a formal decision that enacts the very silencing his character thematically represents.

Julius Caesar

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