Understand the opening scenes of Shakespeare's plays and you understand what follows: The scene has been painted with brilliant strokes. As Julius Caesar opens, Flavius and Marullus, tribunes of Rome, are attempting to reestablish civil order. But it's too little, too late: There is disorder in the streets. The tribunes call upon the commoners to identify themselves in terms of their occupations. In the past, Flavius could recognize a man's status by his dress, but now all the signposts of stability are gone and the world is out of control and dangerous. At first glance, this disorder is attributed to the lower classes who won't wear the signs of their trade and who taunt the tribunes with saucy language full of puns, but while the fickle and dangerous nature of the common Romans is an important theme in later scenes, here the reader is given indications that the real fault lies with the ruling class, which is, after all, responsible for the proper governing of the people.
When Flavius demands, "Is this a holiday?" he is asking whether Caesar's triumph ought to be celebrated. It's a rhetorical question. Flavius thinks poor Romans ought not to celebrate but should "weep [their] tears / Into the channel, till the lowest stream / Do kiss the most exalted shores of all." Caesar, a member of the ruling class, has violently overthrown the government and brought civil strife with him. These issues would have resonated with an audience of the time, able to recall civil disturbances themselves and with a ruler who, by virtue of being a woman, was perceived as less able to rule than a man. (Paradoxically, Elizabeth brought a great deal of peace and stability to England.) In addition, his contemporaries would have recognized that Caesar has overstepped his bounds. Statues of him wearing a crown have been set up before he has been offered the position of ruler, and Flavius and Marullus plan to deface them. Just as Caesar has brought disorder with him, the tribunes contribute to the upheaval by becoming part of the unruly mob themselves.
