Antonio does not understand rhetoric as Brutus does. Their styles are different, such as the words and phrases they use, the symbolic resources, the duration of each speech and the interaction with the people, the reasons they present, and the vividness of the descriptions and manifestations, being abstract and intangible for Brutus and concrete and sensitive for Antonio. After César’s death, he feels guilty and even suggests a possible punishment. As the film shows, by focusing his face on two key moments, Antonio feels like the great manipulator he is. Brutus builds his speech on his figure as a speaker, his honesty and morality, justifying his ethical and political positions and the disposition for personal sacrifice. Antonio, on the other hand, builds his speech on the supposed honesty of the murderers, on some actions of César, and on his lying body, but also on his supposed ignorance in terms of public speaking, with which he achieves a certain effect. Antonio knows that to induce crowds to action, it is not nec
essary to argue correctly but to transmit passion or appeal to moral values. After clarifying that rhetoric is concerned with studying the means we have to persuade, Aristotle observed it by stating that in ‘the tests for persuasion, those that can be obtained through discourse are of three species: some reside in the mood of which he speaks [ ethos], others in predisposing the listener in some way [pathos] and, the latter, in the speech itself [logos], thanks to what it demonstrates or seems to demonstrate . He also adds, he has to pay attention to the effects of the speech, not only to be demonstrative and credible but also to how he must present himself and how he will favor the judge. Because it is very important for persuasion […] the way in which the speaker is presented and that one can assume that he is in a certain attitude towards the ‘listeners’, as well as, in regard to these, the one who let them also be in a certain attitude ‘before the speaker’ », to lead them to the appropriate emotional state.