“Peace!” exclaims Brutus to Cassius in Shakespeare’s tragic play “Julius Caesar” (Act II, Scene ii). “Count the clock.” And Cassius, obeying, replies that “The clock hath stricken three.”
Unfortunately, though, there were no clocks in the Rome of 44 B.C. when the real Brutus and his fellow plotters stabbed Caesar to death in the Roman Senate. Either through carelessness or ignorance, Shakespeare has written an anachronism, something that doesn’t fit the claimed historical period of the story, into his play.
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