Brutus
1.
L. Iunius Brutus. A celebrated Roman, the author, according to
the Roman legends, of the great revolution which drove Tarquin the Proud from his throne, and
which substituted the consular for the regal government. He was the son of Marcus Iunius and
of Tarquinia, the second daughter of Tarquin. While yet young in years, he saw his father and
brother slain by the order of Tarquin, and having no means of avenging them, and fearing the
same fate to himself, he affected a stupid air, in order not to appear at all formidable in
the eyes of a suspicious and cruel tyrant. This artifice proved successful, and he so far
deceived Tarquin and the other members of the royal family that they gave him, in derision,
the surname of Brutus, as indicative of his supposed mental imbecility. At length, when
Lucretia had been outraged by Sextus Tarquinius, Brutus, amid the indignation that pervaded
all orders, threw off the mask, and suatching the dagger from the bosom of the victim, swore
upon it eternal exile to the family of Tarquin. Wearied out with the tyranny of this monarch,
and exasperated by the spectacle of the funeral solemnities of Lucretia, the people abolished
royalty, and confided the chief authority to the Senate and two magistrates, named at first
praetors, but subsequently consuls. Brutus and the husband of Lucretia were first invested
with this important office. They signalized their entrance upon its duties by making all the
people take a solemn oath never again to have a king of Rome. Efforts, nevertheless, were
soon made in favour of the Tarquins: an ambassador sent from Etruria, under the pretext of
procuring a restoration of the property of Tarquin and his family, formed a secret plot for
the overthrow of the new government; and the sons of Brutus became
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Lucius Iunius Brutus. (Vatican Museum.)
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connected with the conspiracy. A discovery having been made, the sons of the consul
and their accomplices were tried, condemned, and executed by the orders of the father,
although the people were willing that he should pardon them. From this time, Brutus sought
only to die himself, and, some months after, a battle between the Romans and the troops of
Tarquin enabled him to gratify his wish. He encountered, in the fight, Aruns, the son of the
exiled monarch; and with so much impetuosity did they rush to the attack that both fell dead
on the spot, pierced to the heart each by the weapon of the other. The corpse of Brutus was
carried to Rome in triumph.
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Coin representing the Children of Brutus led to death by Lictors.
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The consul Valerius pronounced a funeral eulogy over it, a statue of bronze was
raised to the memory of the deceased in the Capitol, and the Roman women wore mourning for an
entire year.
2.
D. Iunius Brutus, master of the horse a.u.c. 418, and consul a.u.c. 429 (
Liv.viii. 12, 29).
3.
D. Iunius Brutus, consul a.u.c. 615,
obtained a triumph for his successes in Spain.
4.
M. Iunius Brutus, father of the Brutus who was concerned in the
assassination of Caesar. He embraced the party of Marius, and was overcome by Pompey. After
the death of Sulla , and the renewal of hostilities, he was besieged in Mutina by Pompey, who
compelled him to surrender after a long resistance, and caused him to be put to death. He was
brother-in-law to Cato by his wife Servilia. Brutus was an able lawyer, and wrote on
the Civil Wars (
Cic. Brut. 62; id.
Or. ii. 32; id.
Pro Cluent.
51).
5.
Marcus Iunius Brutus, son of the preceding, was by the mother's
side nephew of M. Cato (Uticensis). He accompanied his uncle to Cyprus, a.u.c. 695, where the latter was sent by Clodius to annex that island to the Roman
Empire. It appears, however, that he did not copy the example of Cato 's integrity; for,
having become the creditor of the citizens of Salamis to a large amount, he employed one
Scaptius, a man of infamous character, to enforce the payment of the debt, together with an
interest four times exceeding the rate allowed by law (
Ad Att. v. 21). When
Cicero governed the province of Cilicia, to which Cyprus seems to have been annexed, Brutus
wrote to him, and was supported by Atticus in his request, entreating him to give Scaptius a
commission as an officer of the Roman government, and to allow him to employ a military force
to exact from the Salaminians the usurious interest which he illegally demanded. Cicero was
too upright a magistrate to comply with such requests, but they were so agreeable to the
practice of the times that he continued to live on intimate terms with the man who could
prefer them; and the literary tastes of Brutus were a recommendation which he could not
resist; so that he appears soon to have forgotten the affair of Scaptius, and to have spoken
and thought of Brutus with great regard. They both, indeed, were of the same party in
politics, and Brutus actively exerted himself in the service of Pompey, although his own
father had been put to death by the orders of that commander. Being taken prisoner in the
battle of Pharsalia, he received his life from the conqueror. Before Caesar set out for
Africa to carry on war against Scipio and Iuba, he conferred on Brutus the government of
Cisalpine Gaul, and in that province Brutus accordingly remained, and was actually holding an
office under Caesar while his uncle Cato was maintaining the contest in Africa and committed
suicide rather than fall alive into the hands of the enemy. His character, however, seems to
have been greatly improved since his treatment of the Salaminians, for he is said to have
governed Cisalpine Gaul with great integrity and humanity. In the year B.C. 45 he returned to
Rome, but afterwards set out to meet Caesar on his return from Spain, and, in an interview
which he had with him at Nicaea, pleaded the cause of Deiotarus, tetrarch of Galatia, with
such warmth and freedom that Caesar was struck by it, and was reminded of what he used
frequently to say of Brutus—that what his inclinations might be made a very great
difference; but that, whatever they were, they would be nothing lukewarm. It was about this
time also that Brutus divorced his first wife, Appia, daughter of Appius Claudius, and
married the famous Porcia, his cousin, the daughter of Cato. Soon after, he received another
mark of Caesar's favour, in being appointed praetor urbanus, B.C. 44; and he was holding that
office when he resolved to become the assassin of the man whose government he had twice
acknowledged by consenting to act in a public station under it. He was led into the
conspiracy, it is said, by Cassius, who sought at first by writing, and
afterwards by means of his wife Iunia, the sister of Brutus, to obtain his consent to become
an accomplice; and Plutarch informs us that when the attack was made on Caesar in the
Senate-house, the latter resisted and endeavoured to escape, until he saw the dagger of
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Marcus Iunius Brutus.
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Brutus pointed against him, when he covered his head with his robe and resigned
himself to his fate. See
Caesar.
After the assassination of Caesar, the conspirators endeavoured to stir up the feelings of
the people in favour of liberty; but Antony, by reading the will of the dictator, excited
against them so violent a storm of odium that they were compelled to flee from the city.
Brutus retired to Athens, and used every exertion to raise a party there among the Roman
nobility. Obtaining possession, at the same time, of a large sum of the public money, he was
enabled to bring to his standard many of the old soldiers of Pompey who were scattered about
Thessaly. His forces daily increasing, he soon saw himself surrounded by a considerable army,
and Hortensius, the governor of Macedonia, aiding him, Brutus became master in this way of
all Greece and Macedonia. He went now to Asia and joined Cassius, whose efforts had been
equally successful. In Rome, on the other hand, the triumvirs were all-powerful; the
conspirators had been condemned, and the people had taken up arms against them. Brutus and
Cassius returned to Europe to oppose the triumvirs, and Octavius and Antony met them on the
plains of Philippi. In this memorable conflict Brutus commanded the right wing of the
republican army, and defeated the division of the enemy opposed to him, and would in all
probability have gained the day if, instead of pursuing the fugitives, he had brought
reinforcements to his left wing, commanded by Cassius, which was hard pressed and eventually
beaten by Antony. Cassius, upon this, believing everything lost, slew himself in despair.
Brutus bitterly deplored his fate, styling him, with tears of the sincerest sorrow,
“the last of the Romans.” On the following day, induced by the ardour of
the soldiers, Brutus again drew up his forces in line of battle, but no action took place,
and he then took possession of an advantageous post, where it was difficult for an attack to
be made upon him. His true policy was to have remained in this state, without hazarding an
engagement, for his opponents were distressed for provisions, and the fleet that was bringing
them supplies had been totally defeated by the vessels of Brutus. The condition of
things, however, was unknown to the latter, and, after an interval of twenty days, he
hazarded a second battle. Where he himself fought in person, he was still successful; but the
rest of his force was soon overcome, and the conflict ended in a total defeat of the
republican army. Escaping with only a few friends, he passed the night in a cave, and, as he
saw his cause irretrievably ruined, ordered Strato, one of his attendants, to kill him.
Strato refused for a long time to perform the painful office; but, seeing Brutus resolved, he
turned away his face, and held his sword while Brutus fell upon it. He died in the
forty-third year of his age, B.C. 42.
A great deal of false glamour has been thrown around the character of Brutus. That he was a
stern and consistent patriot throughout the whole of his career, the sketch which we have
given of his movements prior to the assassination of Caesar most clearly disproves. Why hold
office under one who was trampling upon the liberties of his country? Why require so much
solicitation before engaging in the conspiracy? Was he not aware that Caesar was a
usurper?—this would show a miserable want of penetration. Or if he preferred
security to danger, where was the Roman patriot in this? The truth is that Brutus,
notwithstanding all that has been said of him, was but a tardy patriot. His motives towards
the close of his career were no doubt pure enough, but he ought to have had nothing to do
with Caesar from the moment when that general began to act with treason towards his country.
As a student and man of letters, the character of Brutus appears to more advantage than as a
patriot. He was remarkable for literary application, usually rising with this view long
before day, and it is said that on the evening previous to a battle, while his army was in a
state of anxious suspense and alarm, he calmly occupied himself in his tent with writing an
abridgment of the history of Polybius. One of the most singular circumstances in the life of
Brutus is that of the so-called apparition which, it was said, appeared to him on one
occasion in his tent at midnight. “Who art thou?” inquired Brutus.
“Thy evil genius,” replied the phantom; “we shall meet again at
Philippi.” And so it happened. The spirit reappeared on the eve of the second
battle of Philippi—a story that reminds one of the Bodach Glas in
Waverley. See Plutarch's life of Brutus.
