The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a history play and tragedy by William Shakespeare first performed in 1599. Although the play is named Julius Caesar, Brutus speaks more than four times as many lines as the title character, and the central psychological drama of the play focuses on Brutus. Julius Caesar is a tragedy, as it tells the story of an honourable hero who makes several critical errors of judgment by misreading people and events, leading to his own death and a bloody civil war that consumes his nation. The entire play centres around Brutus upholding the truth of two moral statements: First, that monarchy is intrinsically tyrannical; and secondly, that killing Caesar, an as-yet-innocent man, is morally acceptable if it prevents Rome from becoming a monarchy.