negative and is not socially desirable. It involves such traits as aggression, egotism, and arrogance. Caesar shows this kind of pride. He's flat out arrogant and constantly reaffirming his superiority. He thinks his ideas are great, and he sees zero point in listening to the advice or warnings of anybody. He thinks he is untouchable for really no other reason than the fact that he is Caesar.

The gods do this in shame of cowardice:
Caesar should be a beast without a heart,
If he should stay at home to-day for fear.
No, Caesar shall not: danger knows full well
That Caesar is more dangerous than he:
We are two lions litter'd in one day,
And I the elder and more terrible:
And Caesar shall go forth.

Both Cassius and Julius Caesar are depicted as extremely prideful individuals. In addition to believing that Caesar is ambitious, Cassius's motivation stems from his pride and refusal to have someone exalted above himself. In Act One, Scene 2, Cassius attempts to persuade Brutus to join the other senators against Caesar. Cassius reveals his prideful personality by telling Brutus,

"I cannot tell what you and other men Think of this life, but, for my single self, I had as lief not be as live to be In awe of such a thing as I myself. I was born free as Caesar. So were you. We both have fed as well, and we can both Endure the winter’s cold as well as he" (Shakespeare, 1.2.95-101).

Cassius clearly will not accept anyone ruling Rome as a monarch and refuses to give up his authoritative position as senator. Cassius's pride also motivates him to assassinate Caesar in hopes that the Roman population will view him as a hero, who has murdered an ambitious tyrant.

Julius Caesar is also an extremely prideful individual, who refuses to acknowledge the advice of soothsayers, his wife, and unnatural portents. Caesar is a vain person, who scoffs at soothsayers and dismisses the warnings regarding the Ides of March. Caesar's pride and arrogance are the reason he dismisses his wife's nightmares and accepts Decius's favorable interpretation of her dream. During his conversation with the senators in Act Three, Scene 1 before he is assassinated, Caesar speaks in the third person and refers himself as "constant as the northern star." Caesar's pride alters his perception of how others view him, and he dismisses numerous warnings about the senators' plan to assassinate him. His prideful personality also contributes to arguments regarding his ambitious nature. Essentially, Caesar is perceived as ambitious because of his prideful, arrogant demeanor.

In ancient Rome, ambition was the pursuit of glory and honor. The primary way to achieve these traits was through military leadership in conquest. In fact, failure to achieve glory usually resulted in the honorable path of suicide.

Julius Caesar achieved glory through his military conquests of Gaul (modern France). He expanded Roman control beyond present-day Italy to the rest of Europe. Often, defeated enemies were brought back to Rome and paraded through the streets in what was termed a “triumph,” a parade of victory for the glory of the victor. Because Julius Caesar was the sole leader left of the First Triumvirate, he was the focus of much attention. This disturbed the Senate, who feared a military conquest of Rome. Dictatorships were a common practice, but they were temporary, lasting only six months. They were afraid that Julius Caesar was ambitious in the worst sense, feeding off the adulation of the public and making himself the sole emperor of Rome. Therefore, Brutus and Cassius believed their path to glory and honor was the assassination of Caesar, thus saving Rome from the dissolution of the Republic. Their actions, however, paved the way for Octavius to establish himself as Caesar Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which would last another five hundred years.