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Story Time
In *Julius Caesar*, politics played their ancient games. Boundaries of loyalty shifted like modern **gerrymandering**, twisting the map of Rome’s senate. Cassius would **gloat** at every victory of persuasion, feeding on ambition with the appetite of **gluttony**. Brutus, meanwhile, labored through the **grunt work** of conscience, torn between loyalty and liberty. Caesar himself, weary of the conspirators’ **hectoring**, dismissed their fears, indulging in the prideful **hedonism** of power.
Yet the conspirators were skilled at **hoodwinking**—masking treachery with friendship. “Strike now,” Cassius whispered, “and soon we shall be out of your hair.” They convinced Brutus that killing Caesar would remove **impediments** to freedom. But when the deed was done, their motives were **impugned**, and Antony, with fiery words, turned the crowd. His rage, far from **inadvertent**, was deliberate, his speech an **indictment** not just of murderers but of their hypocrisy.
Rome demanded that the **incumbent** senators answer for bloodshed. Promises to **indemnify** the Republic with freedom rang hollow. Brutus fell ill, **indisposed** not in body but in spirit, crushed by the weight of betrayal. And so the tragedy unfolded: a tale of ambition cloaked as virtue, where every hoodwink, every gloat, every hectoring cry led only to civil war.
Yet the conspirators were skilled at **hoodwinking**—masking treachery with friendship. “Strike now,” Cassius whispered, “and soon we shall be out of your hair.” They convinced Brutus that killing Caesar would remove **impediments** to freedom. But when the deed was done, their motives were **impugned**, and Antony, with fiery words, turned the crowd. His rage, far from **inadvertent**, was deliberate, his speech an **indictment** not just of murderers but of their hypocrisy.
Rome demanded that the **incumbent** senators answer for bloodshed. Promises to **indemnify** the Republic with freedom rang hollow. Brutus fell ill, **indisposed** not in body but in spirit, crushed by the weight of betrayal. And so the tragedy unfolded: a tale of ambition cloaked as virtue, where every hoodwink, every gloat, every hectoring cry led only to civil war.