Julius Caesar is concerned with what could be called, to borrow the title of Judith Ferster's excellent book, fictions of advice. This means that it is also, to invoke another important work on medieval literature and politics, a play of persuasion. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is in the competing funeral orations delivered by Brutus and Mark Antony in Act 3 Scene 2, and I will return to them in due course. But even leaving that scene aside, it is impossible to read or watch the play without being struck by the frequency of moments of advising or persuading, be it Cassius' campaign to persuade Brutus to join the conspiracy, Decius Brutus' persuasive reinterpretation of Calpurnia's dream, or Antony's advice to Caesar that Cassius is ‘not dangerous’ but ‘a noble Roman, and well given’ (Julius Caesar, 1. 2. 197–8). In the course of this chapter I want to look at these acts of persuasion and the fictions of advice depicted in Julius Caesar as they accrue around a set of important themes and also around various kinds of action. The themes that interest me here are those of counsel and flattery – concepts that occupy a central place in early modern discussions of politics, and that concern the willingness or ability to offer and to hear advice.