Cassius: The Conspirator Who Is Right About Everything Too Late

Cassius spots Brutus as the conspirators' necessary cover in Act 1, Scene 2 and spends the scene working on him. His method is personalised: he invokes Brutus's famous ancestor who once expelled a tyrant, plays up Caesar's physical weaknesses (he nearly drowned once, he has epilepsy), and appeals directly to Brutus's sense of his own worth. 'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.' The line is aimed at Brutus; it also reveals Cassius's own burning resentment.

He is a better tactician than Brutus at every important moment and is overruled every time. He warns against letting Antony speak at Caesar's funeral. He warns against marching to Philippi instead of waiting for Antony's army to come to them. Brutus dismisses both arguments. Both prove correct.

He dies in Act 5, Scene 3 by his own sword after misjudging a battlefield situation. He believes his friend Titinius has been captured when Titinius has actually been rescued. He is the play's sharpest reader of people, killed by one moment of bad intelligence.