Rome in the second century B.C. was, according to Shakespeare's play, a very confused place, in the area of government. The people of Rome were quite gullible, being very easily persuaded from one ‘passionate' speech to another, (shown in the speeches of Brutus and Antony to the people following Caesars death) but they knew what they didn't want. They knew that they did not want a monarchy. They had experienced monarchies before, and saw the affects it had on their ancestors, and themselves, and ultimately the effects that it had on the city of Rome itself. The fact that the common citizens did not have much political wisdom does account for their gullibleness, and poor judgement, yet, in the first act, second scene of the play, it is made clear that the commoners do not want a monarchy, and they praise and love Caesar because he realizes what the people want, and obeys. Even if the people were more politically wise, they would not have realized what Caesar was doing. In death, Caesar bought their love with money (seventy-five drachmas for each man), and while living bought their approval and love with understanding as well as wealth. In this way, the commoners did have a political ideal, and that was the one of whoever pleased and catered to them the most. It is not quite unlike America today. Whichever presidential/senatorial/house representative, etc., candidate promises the greatest amount of changes, and promises less taxation, etc., is elected into government. That is the way now, and can happen now, because we have a stable government, yet, in Rome that was not the case. By catering to the people, Caesar hoped to take the extremely unstable government and turn it into whatever suited his needs. Any one person who had done what Caesar had done would have been loved and revered. He could have taken over the government and ruled unjustly, yet, he didn't even have the chance. The people didn't really know whether or not they wanted him to have that chance because they didn't really know what he was promising. People in Rome back then are, in a way, like a great majority of people in America today, politically unaware. Yet, being politically unaware back then had a much greater and detrimental consequence than it does in America today.