The tale of the great Julius Caesar, especially his death, is fraught with conspiracies, betrayals, and attempts to keep a latch on a failing system of honor. In Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar, the Roman emperor's death and its aftershocks are shown no better than in Marc Antony's oration when the elite's silver tongue convinces the Roman general populace to turn against the ill-fated conspirators. With his skillful wordplay; Antony appeals to the crowd's easily shifting allegiances, lust for wealth, and sense of honor, eventually pushing them to fight the conspirators.
Brutally murdering Brutus' claims of Caesar's ambition within the opening lines of his speech, Antony annihilates the noble's reputation in the same spiel, easily swaying the public's opinion of Caesar and the late emperor's assassinators. In an effort to detract from Brutus' reputation, Antony refutes the man's earlier statements of Caesar containing a wealth of ambition: "He hath brought many captives home to Rome,/ Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill;/ Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?" (JC III.ii.87-89).With this Antony means that Caesar fought in many wars, bringing back slaves and foreigners for whom Rome gained ransom from. This money did not just fill the pockets of the elites and nobles; he also gave some to the commoners, so how can Caesar be called ambitious? In the next lines, Antony trods upon Brutus and his claims even more: "When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;/ Ambition should be made of sterner stuff./ Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;/ And Brutus is an honourable man" (JC II.ii.90-93). Basically saying that Caesar showed such empathy toward the people and their suffering that when they cried he cried, then noting that ambition should have more a backbone, Antony plants seeds of doubt within the people of both Brutus' claims and his honour. The first quote capitalizes on the people's sense of entitlement as citizens of Rome and uses the logos of Caesar's...