Cassius

Play

Julius Caesar

Summary

Gaius Cassius Longinus is the lean, sharp-eyed instigator of the conspiracy against Caesar — a man of acute political intelligence and consuming personal envy who recognises that Brutus's reputation is essential to lending the plot moral legitimacy. Caesar himself distrusts men with "a lean and hungry look" like Cassius, who "thinks too much." Unlike Brutus, Cassius is a pragmatist whose instincts are usually correct, yet he consistently defers to Brutus's idealism, a dynamic that dooms them both. He dies at Philippi, mistakenly believing his side has lost, asking his bondsman Pindarus to run him through with his own sword.

Notable Quotations

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings." *(1.2)*

"Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world / Like a Colossus, and we petty men / Walk under his huge legs and peep about / To find ourselves dishonourable graves." *(1.2)*

"Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; / He thinks too much: such men are dangerous." *(1.2 — spoken by Caesar)*

Cross-references

• Julius Caesar — the play
• Tragedies
• character_brutus — his co-conspirator and reluctant moral superior
• character_julius_caesar — the object of his envy and the target of the plot
• character_mark_antony_jc — his great adversary after the Ides of March