Julius Caesar's exciting plot, brilliant rhetoric and searching characterisation have made it one of Shakespeare's most popular plays with both readers and theatre-goers. When it seems that Julius Caesar may assume supreme power, a plot to destroy him is hatched by those determined to preserve the threatened Republic. But the different motives of the conspirators soon become apparent when high principles clash with malice and political realism. As the nation plunges into bloody civil war, this taut drama explores the violent consequences of betrayal and murder.