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All Site ContentJulius CaesarAct 1Scene 3
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“Caesar as a king...save here in Italy”
Allusion
Act 1,
Scene 3
Lines 76-88

An explanation of Casca’s description of “Caesar as a king” in Act 1, Scene 3 of myShakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

Cassius

A man no mightier than thyself or me
In personal action, yet prodigious grown
And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.

Casca

'Tis Caesar that you mean.  Is it not, Cassius?

Cassius

Let it be who it is. For Romans now
Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors,
But — woe the while! — our fathers' minds are dead,
And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirits.
Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish.

Casca

Indeed, they say the senators tomorrow
Mean to establish Caesar as a king,
And he shall wear his crown by sea and land,
In every place save here in Italy.

The Senate was willing to allow Caesar rule as a king out in the provinces of the empire, whose inhabitants they considered not much better than barbarians. But they didn't want him to rule in Italy, where they still maintained the pretense of having a noble Republican form of government.

(Bust of Julius Caesar, artist unknown, c. 30-20 B.C.)