Brutus enters with several friends; battle-weary, they sit down together to rest.
Tearfully, Brutus speaks to three different companions—Clitus, Dardanius, and Volumnius—asking each of them in turn to kill him. To Volumnius, Brutus explains that Caesar’s ghost has appeared to him again, and that he knows his hour has come.
They each refuse his request, urging him to keep running from the enemy. Brutus declines and bids each of them farewell, explaining that now he only desires rest.
Finally, he asks Strato to hold Brutus’s sword while Brutus runs upon it. Strato agrees, and Brutus kills himself, saying, “Caesar, now be still; I kill’d not thee with half so good a will” which means he killed Caesar half as willingly as he did himself.
Octavius enters with Antony, Messala, Lucilius (both captives), and other soldiers.
They see Strato with Brutus’s body, and Strato explains to them the circumstances of Brutus’s suicide.
Antony declares that Brutus was “the noblest Roman of them all,” since he was the only conspirator who did not act out of envy of Caesar; instead, he acted from lofty ideals. Antony described Brutus as a perfect man, saying he was the perfect balance of all elements.
Octavius agrees, making plans for Brutus’s honorable burial. They all leave to celebrate their victory in battle.