THE BLOODY HANDS OF BRUTUS

My name is Marcus Junius Brutus but people call me Brutus. The year is 44 BCE in Rome. Tomorrow is the day that the other Roman senators and I will have to get rid of Caesar. The man was once my friend but now he thinks he is some kind of god. We senators love Rome and want to create a free republic. The incompetent Caesar thinks only of himself and not of Rome. He wants to become an emperor.

Sleep is difficult to find for it makes me nervous thinking of what has been planned for tomorrow. I am overcome with uncertainty for I keep wondering if what we are going to do tomorrow is right or wrong. My robe is damp with sweat and my body trembles like grass being cut. Finally, I drift into unsettled sleep.

The sound of my servants sweeping away the dust in the courtyard wakes me up this particular morning. The fountain reminds me of things I do not want to think about. I take my heavy, cold, bronze dagger and leave. My wife notices something under my robe but I am easily able to persuade her into thinking it is a scroll. She knows that the Senate meets on the Ides of March (middle of March). I quickly leave before I am questioned further.

When I get to the Senate, I see Cassius and the other Senators standing by the statue of Pompey. They are all very solemn. Cassius seemed less nervous then the others and now they were all clutching there daggers under there robes.

Suddenly Caesar appears wearing an imperial robe trying to look like a emperor. Some of the Senators began talking to Caesar. Tillius suddenly pulls back Caesar’s robe and Casca stabs the first but a slight wound. Cassius and the other Senators join in the bloody blows. When Caesar sees me stab him, he has a look of disbelief in his eyes. He says, "Et tu Brutus!" (You too Brutus!) Caesar pulls his robe over his head and lets us stab him.

After Caesar lay dead in the Senate, I start to give a speech to encourage them to work for a free republic, but they are all afraid of what they have done. They run away in chaos and confusion. I look down and I see blood on my hands.

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