Chapter Act V of Julius Caesar - Study Guide by William Shakespeare

Brutus. Antony arrives and recognizes Lucillius and tells his soldiers that although they did not get Brutus, they still captured a nobleman. He orders his soldiers to continue fighting.

5.5

Brutus arrives accompanied by several stranglers from his defeated army. He first asks Clitus and then Dardanius to kill him so that he will not be captured. They both refuse and go to stand away from him. He then asks Volumnius to kill him as a friend, but Volumnius tells him, "That's not the office for a friend, my lord" (5.5.29). At the sound of another call to battle, Brutus hastily gets up and orders his men to flee ahead of him. He keeps Strato with him, and finally convinces Strato to hold the sword while he impales himself upon it.

Antony and Octavius arrive with their army. They find Brutus dead on the ground and Strato nearby. Strato informs them how Brutus died, and Antony comments about Brutus, "This was the noblest Roman of them all" (5.5.67). He says that of all the conspirators only Brutus really believed that he was killing Caesar to uphold the Roman Republic. Antony continues, saying, "his life was gentle, and the elements / So mixed in him that nature might stand up / And say to all the world 'This was a man'" (5.5.74). Octavius orders the body to be placed in his tent and gives the order to cease fighting. He ends the play with the lines, "So call the field to rest, and let's away / To part the glories of this happy day" (5.5.79-80).