Rome’s First Prince: Shakespeare’s Caesar and Machiavelli’s Rome

Having dealt with Machiavelli’s political ideas in earlier works like Richard III, Shakespeare now applied them to the greatest political power in the ancient world: Rome. Machiavelli repeatedly used Rome as the prime classical example to follow in both The Prince and the Discourses on Livy, prompting Shakespeare to use both works to inform the actions of his characters. In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare contrasts the republican Cassius with the tyrannical Antony while having both use the political methods of Machiavelli to advance their respective agendas. Cassius’ failure and Antony’s ultimate victory, along with the play’s depiction of Rome, prove Machiavelli’s assertion in the Discourses that republican government cannot exist in a corrupt society.