Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius. We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar. And in the spirit of men there is no blood. O, that we then could come by Caesar’s spirit and not dismember Caesar! But, alas, Caesar must bleed for it. And, gentle friends kill him boldly, but not wrathfully. Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods, not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.” (Act 2, Scene 1, Lines 175-196)
Brutus does not want to kill Antony because he views him only as one of Caesar’s limbs. “And for Mark Antony, think not of him, for he can do no more that Caesar’s arm when Caesar’s head if off.” (Lines 194-196) He also does not want to kill Antony because that would make them “butchers”. They are sacrificing Caesar for the sake of Rome and the betterment of the future. Brutus says on line 193 “We shall be called purgers, not