ABSTRACT
While Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar has been analyzed primarily as an examination of tyrannicide, critics have been divided about whether the playwright intended to portray the assassination of Caesar as “the foulest crime in secular history” or as a justifiable action against a “monstrous tyrant.”1 Was Brutus an exemplar of republican virtues or an “intellectually dishonest,” self-righteous traitor? Even allowing for intentional ambiguity in Shakespeare’s account, a clearer answer to whether assassination is justified can be found by examining the figures in Julius Caesar. Together they are engaged in a classic example of crisis decision making in which the consequences of an action are far-reaching and irrevocable and accompanied by high risk and under conditions of limited knowledge and under time constraints. This chapter examines the decision to assassinate Caesar, but like many crisis situations one central decision is surrounded by many related ones. Brutus, the putative tragic hero, makes more than ten fateful decisions.
