Other parts were played by Astley Bransby (Dumnorix); Thomas Davies (Varus); John Hayman Packer (Lucius); and Henry Scrase (Gartha).

The enemy commander, the usurping emperor Maximin, then threatens to execute the brothers unless their father surrenders, which Aemilius refuses to do despite Cordelia's pleas.

[7] The guarded though favourable reaction to the play might be put down to patriotic recognition of "how the private concern of family affection is strictly connected with political reality and with the protection of the state".

[9] But history had now moved on and by 1809 John Aikin's Athenaeum was describing the play as "a tame performance",[10] while in 1830 the Edinburgh Encyclopædia was reporting that "it was acted with indifferent success".

[11] However, a more recent argument has been made that the play provides a superior presentation of the conflict between public virtue and private loyalty, convincing in terms of Classical rather than modern drama, and merits study as such.