Brutus is a powerful public figure, a dignified military leader and a loving friend. The conflicting value systems that battle with each other, in the play, are enacted on a micro level in Brutus’ mind. Even after the murder of Caesar has been committed, questions remain whether it was a noble, selfless act or failure of a great nobleman and friend. Brutus’ rigid idealism is both his greatest virtue and his most deadly flaw. He lives up to Antony’s elegiac description as ‘the noblest of Romans.’ His commitment to principles leads him to miscalculations: wanting to curtail violence, he ignores Cassius’ advice and does not kill Antony as well. In another moment of naive idealism, he allows Antony to give his funeral oration over Caesar’s body. So he forfeits the authority of having the last word on the murder and allows Antony to incite the plebeians to riot against him. He later endangers his good relationship with Cassius by self-righteously condemning the fund raising tactics. So Brutus acts out of a desire to limit the self serving aspects of his actions, ironically in each incident he dooms the very cause, he seeks to promote, thus serving no one.