What makes Brutus a tragic figure is precisely that he did not wish to be an emperor or dictator. Brutus was an avid supporter of the Roman Republic and saw imperial rule as a form of tyranny. Far from wanting to be a ruler, he opposed all forms of monarchical rule, believing strongly in representative government. He felt that any form of autocracy transformed the ruler into a tyrant and the subjects into slaves, corrupting...
What makes Brutus a tragic figure is precisely that he did not wish to be an emperor or dictator. Brutus was an avid supporter of the Roman Republic and saw imperial rule as a form of tyranny. Far from wanting to be a ruler, he opposed all forms of monarchical rule, believing strongly in representative government. He felt that any form of autocracy transformed the ruler into a tyrant and the subjects into slaves, corrupting not only the nature of the body politic but also the ethical formation of its citizens.
Unlike many of his co-conspirators, Brutus was a friend and protégé of Julius Caesar. Brutus did not even think Caesar was a bad leader. In fact, he was concerned Caesar's personal popularity and benevolence made tyranny palatable and thus, paradoxically, that it was necessary to assassinate Caesar precisely because he was a good leader who could use his charisma to quell the Republican spirit.
Antony sums up the nobility and selflessness of Brutus' goals in his final eulogy for Brutus at the end of the play:
This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
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