In Act Four, scene one, in Shakespeare's play,
Julius Caesar, the author is dramatizing the chaos that follows
Caesar's assassination, as well as the dispersement of power in light of the emperor's
death.
It is during this scene that the three most powerful
men in Rome at this time, Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, are drawing up a list of those
who shall be put to death in order to guarantee their own success in seizing political
power, something they do strategically to remove their enemies, without feeling. For
example, Lepidus agrees to have his own brother
executed.
They plan to change Caesar's will, showing their
greed; the depth of their corruption easily equals that which Brutus feared in Caesar,
as they manipulate circumstances to their best
advantage.
Brutus and Cassius have left Rome to raise an
army in Greece. Antony privately tells Octavius that Lepidus is too weak and he plans to
remove him from a position of power. Antony and Octavius are also planning to raise
their own army.
In essence, with the death Caesar, Rome is
close to erupting in civil war. The dispersement of authority will show how power can
corrupt men.
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