Act 2 - Second Meeting - Discussion Director

Act 2 - Discussion Director

Who are all the conspirators against Julius Caesar? Who is the newest member and why did he decide to be a conspirator?
All the conspirators are Cassius, Casca, Decius, Cinna, Metellus and Trebonius. The newest member of the conspirator party is Brutus. The reason Brutus joined is because he received a letter urging him to rebel against Julius. After much contemplation, he agrees to do so and the conspirators approach him to join; he obliges.

Do you feel that Julius Caesar would let the power "go to his head" like all the conspirators think he will?
Aaron and I think that there was a possibility it would have gone to his head, but they never gave him the chance. Julius could have done wonderful things for Rome and wanted help from all the senators, the opposite of what the conspirators thought would happen.

What happened in Calpurnia's nightmare that was a bad omen?
In Calpurnia's dream, she dreamt of Julius' statue with blood running down it. The Romans were all bathing their hands in it. She sees this as a bad omen and wants him to stay home for the day.

As stated above, Julius Caesar's wife, Calpurnia, has had many signs that symbolize death for Julius, she grows strongly scared and doesn't want him to go to the Senate that day. What event happened that made Julius changed his mind?

The event that happened that made Julius change his mind about staying home was Decius came to bring him to the Senate that day, where the conspirators wanted to kill him, and Caesar rejected his help because he was going to stay home. Julius explained Calpurnia's dream and Decius explained that that was showing the Romans love for him rather than it being a bad omen. Julius agreed and proceeded to the Senate.

In our group, we discussed that Julius should have stayed home because of the overwhelming bad omens from Calpurnia and others. Julius was far too proud to want to stay home in the first place but he should have realized the danger. Another aspect that should have changed his mind was when Artemidorus wrote him a letter of warning and gave it to him before he went to the Senate. Julius refused to read it because he felt his personal problems could wait until after. If he would have read it, he would have still been alive.