​In Canto 34 Dante sees Judas, Brutus and Cassius in the face of Lucifer.

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Judas is in the middle and in the left and right mouths hang Brutus and Cassius. Brutus and Cassius led the assassination Julius Caesar in the Roman Senate (44 BC). They wanted him murdered as he was turning the Roman Republic into a tyranny and was awarded the title "dictator perpetuo" by the senate.

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Brutus and Cassius appear with their heads out, but Judas is lodged headfirst; only his twitching legs hanging out of Lucifer's mouth. The mouths mimic the sinners being chewed, yet never killing them.



 

 

​But why does Dante think that Brutus and Cassius are the subsequent worst sinners after Judas' betrayal of Christ?

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Brutus and Cassius are included as the worst sinners as they betrayed Caesar and Dante believed betrayal to be the worst sin a man could commit. It is also suggested by scholars that Dante chose Brutus and Cassius, as he believed Caesar was trying to open Rome to the doors of Christendom and by killing Caesar slowed down the birth of Christianity for many more years. Christianity finally came to Rome during the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great during his reign between 306–337 AD.