in Act I, Scene i—exposition of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar—tells you what about the play? What is learned about important characters,...

The first scene in the play Julius
Caesar sets the tone for the tragic comedy.  Although the minor characters
that are featured in this scene spend most of their time making jokes through the use of
puns, Shakespeare simultaneously hints at the chaotic and tumultuous state of Rome,
where the polarizing and all powerful leader, Julius Caesar, has clearly won many
followers but has also gained a dangerous element of
detractors.

During the scene, several commoners are
celebrating Caesar's victory over Pompei, Caesar's former friend and fellow Roman
General, in the Roman Civil War.  Although triumph and celebration line the streets, the
tribunes, Flavius and Murellus, are visibly upset about Caesar's victory and go about
harranguing the commoners for celebrating the death of a great Roman (Pompei).  In the
end of the scene, they break up the celebration and take off all the decorations on
Caesar's statues.  This foreshadows that the end of the Roman Civil War between Caesar
and Pompei merely marks the beginning of a new civil strife on the horizon due to
Caesar's arbitrary power.