Discuss the element of superstition in the Shakespearean play Julius Caesar?

Many superstitions of the Elizabethan Age date back to
much earlier times, including the Age of the Roman Empire.  Thus, the inclusion of omens
and dreams in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is
of great significance both to the audience and to the play itself.  Throughout the play,
there are soothsayers, dreams, ghosts, and personal interpretations of the stars that
greatly affect the characters.

Caesar, of course, ignores
all supernatural warnings and signs for fear that the Roman people think him weak.  He
refuses to listen to the soothsayer who cautions him against the Ides of March; he
ignores his wife's entreaties to not attend the Senate because she has had a most
portentous dream.  The storm of the previous night moves him not.  All these signs he
ignores lest his role as leader be questioned; yet, ironically, he is easily swayed by
Decius's interpretations of these omens and dreams that he should, indeed, go to the
Senate.

And, it is this vacillation between disbelief and
belief that threads the play Julius Caesar.  For instance, in "the
seduction scene" of Act I, Cassius tells Brutus,

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The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our
stars,

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
I,ii,140-141)

But later, in
Act V, he tells Messala that he once "held Epicurus strong," meaning he does not
believe, as Epicurus did, that the gods interest themselves in men's affairs.  but, now,
Brutus says, "...I change my mind" (V,i,78-79). Cassius tells Messala of an omen that
presaged death.

Likewise, Brutus vacillates between belief
and disbelief in omens and other superstitions. For, in Act I, he is convinced by
Cassius's statement that destiny lies in the hands of each man.  Later, he ignores the
portents of the suicide of his wife Portia; however, he talks to Cassius of destiny
regarding their forthcoming battle in Philippi:

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There is a tide in the affairs of
men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to
fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their
life

Is bound in shallows and in
miseries.

On such a full sea are we now
afloat,

And we must take the current when it
serves,

Or lose our ventures. (IV,iii,
244-250)

And, directly after
this speech, Brutus encounters the ghost of Caesar, telling
it,

That
mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stare?

Speak to me
what thou art. ...

Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with
thee. (IV,iii,315-317)

But
when Cassius tells Brutus that "the affairs of men rests still incertain" after having
witnessed the omen of the eagles, Brutus rejects such ideas
saying,

But I
do find it cowardly and vile,

For fear of what might fall,
so to prevent

The time of life, arming myself with
patience

To stay the providence of some high
powers

That govern us below.
(V,iii,112-116)

These words,
indeed, echo those of Caesar before he goes to the Senate.  Is it, then, the ghost of
Caesar which has made Brutus say these words--"thy [Brutus's] evil spirit"--or
himself?

Certainly, from the opening festival of Lupercal
in which infertile women hope to change their condition during this superstitious
holiday, to the words of the soothsayer that presage the tragedy of Julius Caesar,
superstition, along with its acceptance and rejection, is a powerful force in
Shakespeare's classic play. But, perhaps like modern man, the Romans manipulated their
superstitions to fit their own inner desires, fears, and motives, underscoring the
statement of William Jennings Bryant:

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Destiny is not a matter of chance, but of choice.
It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be
achieved.

And, so it is true,
as Cassius says, that "the fault is not in the stars, but in
ourselves."