Passage: [BRUTUS.] Messala, I have here receivèd letters,
That young Octavius and Mark Antony
Come down upon us. . . .
MESSALA. Myself have letters of the selfsame tenor.
BRUTUS. With what addition?
MESSALA. That by proscription and bills of outlawry,
Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus
Have put to death an hundred senators.
BRUTUS. Therein our letters do not well agree.
Mine speak of seventy senators that died
By their proscriptions, Cicero being one.
CASSIUS. Cicero one!
MESSALA. Ay, Cicero is dead,
And by that order of proscription.
Answer: The ruthlessness of power
Explanation:
This passage is from The tragedy of Julius Caesar.
In this passage we can see that Messala and Brutus received the letters and in those letter there is an information that Antony and Octavius are approaching and that they are condemned many of senators and one of the senators is Cicero. Octavius was Caesar's appointed successor as we know and Cicero is considered as Antony's enemy after Caesar died.
All of this people are people of political and intellectual accomplishments, as they are considered like this in history later too. In spite of all accomplishments and their power they were having enemies and they were killed in many ways.
