Brutus

Brūtus, i, m., = Βροῦτος [1. brutus], a Roman cognomen.

• I L. Junius, the relative of Tarquinius Superbus, saved by his feigned stupidity [whence the name], and the deliverer of Rome from regal dominion, Liv. 1, 56, 7 sq.; Ov. F. 2, 717; 2, 837; Verg. A. 6, 818; Cic. Tusc. 1, 37, 89 saep. After him, Brutus was the cognomen of the patrician gens Junia.—
• II From the plebeian gens Junia,
• • A M. Junius, son of Servilia, a half-sister of Cato Uticensis by M. Brutus (not by Caesar; v. Ellendt Cic. Brut. p. cxxvii.), an intimate friend of Cicero about the 21st year of his age, and one of the murderers of Julius Caesar, Suet. Caes. 80 sq.; id. Aug. 10; Vell. 2, 56, 3; 2, 58, 1; Tac. A. 1, 2; Cic. Phil. 1, 3, 8; 1, 4, 9 and 10; 2, 12, 28 sq.; 2, 13, 31; id. Fam. 3, 4, 2; as a philos. and orator active and respected, id. Ac. 1, 3, 12; id. Fin. 1, 3, 8; id. Tusc. 5, 1, 1 sq.; id. Att. 12, 5, 3; 13, 9, 2; Plut. Brut. 4; Cic. Or. 71, 237; Quint. 10, 1, 123; Tac. Or. 17 sq.; 21; cf. Ellendt, above cited; Meyer, Fragm. Orat. 205. To him Cic. dedicated his writings: Orator, Brutus, de Deorum Naturā, de Finibus, and Tusc. Quaestiones.—
  • B D. Junius, a fellow-conspirator with the preceding, Suet. Caes. 80 sq.; id. Aug. 10; Vell. 2, 56 sq.; Cic. Phil. 3, 1, 4; id. Fam. 10, 11, 2; id. ad Brut. 1, 2, 2; to him are addressed the letters, Cic. Fam. 11, 5 sqq.; 12 sqq. al.—To these two Cicero's witticism has reference: quid ergo? Ista culpa Brutorum? Minime illorum quidem, sed aliorum brutorum, qui se cautos ac sapientes putant, Cic. Att. 14, 14, 2; cf. id. Phil. 4, 2, 7; id. Att. 14, 20, 2; Liv. 1, 56, 8; Ov. F. 2, 717.—
  • • 2 Derivv.
    • • a Brūtĭā-nus, a, um, adj., of or pertaining to (M. Junius) Brutus: castra, Vell. 2, 72: Cassianaeque partes, id. 2, 74: bellum civile, Lact. 2, 7 fin.—
      • b Brūtīnus, a, um, adj., of or pertaining to Brutus (M. Junius): consilia rei publicae liberandae, Cic. Ep. ad Brut. 1, 15.—
• III D. Junius Brutus Callaicus, consul with P. Corn. Scipio Nasica Serapio A.U.C. 616, Cic. Brut. 28, 107; id. Leg. 3, 9, 20; id. Balb. 17, 40; Vell. 2, 5.—
• IV D. Junius Brutus Julianus, consul with Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus A.U.C. 677, Cic. Brut. 47, 175; id. de Or. 2, 33, 142; id. Att. 12, 22, 2.—
• V M. Junius Brutus, the husband of Servilia, and father of the murderer of Caesar, a distinguished lawyer, Cic. Brut. 62, 222.

2. Brūtus, ī, m. (1. brutus), Beiname der Römer aus der gens Iunia, von denen die bekanntesten: I) L. Iunius Brutus, der durch fingierte Albernheit (daher der Name) gerettete Verwandte des Tarquinius Superbus, Befreier Roms von der königlichen Herrschaft, Liv. 1, 56 sq. Ov. fast. 2, 717 u. 837. Cic. Tusc. 1, 89. – II) M. Iunius Brutus, Sohn der Schwester des Cato Uticensis, Servilia, u. des M. Brutus (nicht des Caesar, s. Ellendt Cic. Brut. p. 136), Mörder des Iulius Cäsar, Cic. Phil. 1, 8 sqq. Vell. 2, 56 u. 58. Suet. Caes. 80 sq.: intimer Freund des um 21 Jahre ältern Cicero, als Philosoph u. Redner geachtet u. tätig, Cic. Acad. 1, 12: derselbe, dem Cicero mehrere seiner Schriften (den Orator, Brutus u.a.) widmete. Vgl. für no. I u. II brutus no. II, 2, a. – III) D. Iunius Brutus, der Mitverschworene des vorigen, Cic. Phil. 3, 8 sqq. Vell. 2, 56 u. 58. Suet. Caes. 80 sq. – Plur. Bruti, Cic. Sest. 143. Plin. ep. 1, 17, 3. – Dav. abgel.: α) Brūtiānus, a, um, brutianisch, des (M. Iunius) Brutus, castra, Vell.: ultio, Val. Max.: bellum civile, Lact. – β) Brūtīnus, a, um, brutinisch, des (M. Iunius) Brutus, consilia coepi inire Brutina plane, Cic. ep. ad Brut. 1, 15, 6.

2 Brutus , Brute, book of British history. c1250 in quo etiam volumine continentur hystoria vetus Britonum que ~us appellatur ‥ (Lit. Pri. Ch. Ch.) N. & Q. I i 21 (cf. ib. 22: a1443 ~us Latine); 1321 lego ‥ librum meum qui dicitur ~us Fabr. York 158.

2 Brūtus, (7) ī, m. , surnom romain : L. Junius Brutus, premier consul de Rome : Liv. 1, 56, 7 || M. Junius Brutus, un des chefs de la conjuration contre César : Cic. Phil. 1, 8 || autres du même nom : Cic. Br. 107 ; 175 ; 222 || titre dʼun traité de rhétorique de Cicéron.

Brutus

Βροῦτος, the name of a plebeian family of the Junia Gens, which traced its descent from the first consul, L. Junius Brutus. (Comp. Cic. Phil. 1.6, Brut. 4.) It was denied by many of the ancients that this family could be descended from the first consul, first, because the latter was a patrician, and secondly, because his race became extinct at his death, as he had only two sons, who were executed by his own orders. (Dionys. A. R. 5.18, comp. 6.70; Dion. Cass. 44.12; Plut. Brut. 1.) Posidonius, indeed, asserted that there was a third son, who was a child when his brothers were put to death, and that the plebeian family was descended from him; and he even pretended to discover a likeness in many of the Bruti to the statue of the first consul. (Plut. l.c.) But this tale about a third son is such an evident invention, to answer an objection that had been started by those who espoused the other side of the question, that it deserves no credence; and nothing was more natural than that the family should claim descent from such an illustrious ancestor, especially after the murder of Caesar, when M. Brutus was represented as the liberator of his country from tyranny, like his name-sake of old. It is, however, by no means impossible, that the family may have been descended from the first consul, even if we take for granted that he was a patrician, as we know that patricians sometimes passed over to the plebeians: while this descent becomes still more probable, if we accept Niebuhr's conjecture (Rom. Hist. i. p. 522, &c.), that the first consul was a plebeian, and that the consulship was, at its first institution, shared between the two orders.

The surname of Brutus is said to have been given to L. Junius, because he pretended idiocy in order to save himself from the last Tarquin, and the word is accordingly supposed to signify an "idiot." (Liv. 1.56; Dionys. A. R. 4.67, who translates it ἠλίθιος; Nonius, p. 77.) Festus, however, in a passage (s. v. Brutum) which is pointed out by Arnold (Rom. Hist. i. p. 104), tells us, that Brutus, in old Latin, was synonymous with Gravis; which, as Arnold remarks, would show a connexion with βάρυς. The word may, therefore, as a surname, have been originally much the same as Severus. This conjecture we think more probable than that of Niebuhr's, who supposes it to mean a "runaway slave," and connects it with the Brettii, "revolted slaves," whence the Brutii are supposed to have derived their name (Strab. vi. p.225; Diod. 16.15; Gel. 10.3): he further observes, that this name might easily have been applied by the Tarquins to Brutus as a term of reproach. (Rom. Hist. i. pp. 63, 98, 515.)

Brutus

1. L. Junius Brutus, was elected consul in B. C. 509, according to the chronology of the Fasti, upon the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome. His story, the greater part of which belongs to poetry, ran as follows: The sister of king Tarquin the Proud, married M. Brutes, a man of great wealth, who died leaving two sons under age. Of these the elder was killed by Tarquin, who coveted their possessions; the younger escaped his brother's fate only by feigning idiocy, whence he received the surname of Brutus. After a while, Tarquin became alarmed by the prodigy of a serpent crawling from the altar in the royal palace, and accordingly sent his two sons, Titus and Aruns, to consult the oracle at Delphi. They took with them their cousin Brutus, who propitiated the priestess with the gift of a golden stick enclosed in a hollow staff. After executing the king's commission, the youths asked the priestess who was to reign at Rome after Tarquin, and the reply was, " He who first kisses his mother." Thereupon the sons of Tarquin agreed to draw lots, which of them should first kiss their mother upon arriving at Rome; but Brutus, who better understood the meaning of the oracle, stumbled upon the ground as they quitted the temple, and kissed the earth, mother of then all. Soon after followed the rape of Lucretia; and Brutus accompanied the unfortunate father to Rome, when his daughter sent for him to the camp at Ardea. Brutus was present at her death, and the moment had now come for avenging his own and his country's wrongs. In the capacity of Tribunus Celerum, which office he then held, and which bore the same relation to the royal power as that of the Magister Equitum did to the dictatorship, he summoned the people, obtained the banishment of the Tarquins, and was elected consul with L. Tarquinius Collatinus in the comitia centuriata. Resolved to maintain the freedom of the infant republic, he loved his country better than his children, and accordingly put to death his two sons, when they were detected in a conspiracy with several other of the young Roman nobles, for the purpose of restoring the Tarquins. He moreover compelled his colleague, L. Tarquinius Collatinus, to resign his consulship and leave the city, that none of the hated family might remain in Rome. And when the people of Veii and Tarquinii attempted to bring Tarquin back by force of arms, Brutus marched against them, and, fighting with Aruns, the son of Tarquin, he and Aruns both fell, pierced by each other's spears. The matrons mourned for Brutus a year, and a bronze statue was erected to him on the capitol, with a drawn sword in his hand. (Liv. 1.56_60, 2.1_7 ; Dionys. A. R. 4.67-85, 5.1-18; Macrob. 2.16; Dion. Cass. 42.45; Plut. Brut. 1.)

The contradictions and chronological impossibilities in this account have been pointed out by Niebuhr. (i. p. 511.) Thus, for instance, the last Tarquin is said to have reigned only twenty-five years, and yet Brutus is represented as a child at the beginning of his reign, and the father of young men at the close of it. Again, the tale of his idiocy is irreconcileable with his holding the responsible office of Tribunus Celerum. That he did hold this office seems to be an historical fact (Pompon. de Orig. Juris, Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 2.15) ; and the story of his idiocy probably arose from his surname, which may, however, as we have seen, have had a very different meaning originally.

Brutus

2. T. Junius Brutus, and

Brutus

3. Ti. Junius Brutus, the sons of the first consul and of Vitellia (Liv. 2.4), were executed by their father's orders, as related above. (Dionys. A. R. 5.6_8; Liv. ii, 4, 5.)

Brutus

4. L. Junius Brutus, one of the leaders of the plebeians in their secession to the Sacred Mount, B. C. 494, is represented by Dionysius as a plebeian, who took the surname of Brutus, that his name might be exactly the same as the first consul's. He was, according to the same authority, chosen one of the first tribunes of the plebs in this year, and also plebeian aedile in the year that Coriolanus was brought to trial. (Dionys. A. R. 6.70, &c., 87-89, 7.14, 26.) This Brutus is not mentioned by any ancient writer except Dionysius, and Plutarch (Plut. Cor. 7) who copies from him. The old reading in Asconius (in Cornel. p. 76, ed. Orelli) made L. Junius C. F. Paterculus one of the first tribunes; but Junius was an alteration made by Manutius, and Paterculus nowhere occurs as a cognomen of the Junia gens: the true reading is Albinius. [Albinius.] Niebuhr supposes (i. p. 617) that this L. Junius Brutus of Dionysius is an entirely fictitious person.

Brutus

5. D. Junius Brutus Scaeva, magister equitum to the dictator Q. Publilius Philo, B. C. 339, and plebeian consul in 325 with the patrician L. Furius Camillus. He carried on war in his consulship against the Vestini, whom he conquered in battle, after a hard contest, and took two of their towns, Cutina and Cingilia. (Liv. viii 12, 29; Diod. 18.2.)

Brutus

6. D. Junius Brutus Scaeva, D. F., legate B. C. 293 in the army of the consul Sp. Carvilius Maximus, and consul in 292. (Liv. 10.43, 47.) In his consulship he conquered the Faliscans: Sp. Carvilius, the consul of the preceding year, served under him as legate by command of the senate. (Zonar. 8.1.)

Brutus

7. D. Junius Brutus, probably a son of the preceding, exhibited, in conjunction with his brother Marcus, the first gladiatorial combat at Rome in the Forum Boarium, at his father's funeral in B. C. 264. (Liv. Epit. 16; V. Max. 2.4.7.)

Brutus

8. M. Junius Brutus, brother of the preceding. (Val. Max. l.c.)

Brutus

9. M. Junius Brutus, tribune of the plebs, B. C. 195, endeavoured with his colleague P. Junius Brutus to prevent the repeal of the Oppia lex, which restrained the expenses of women. He was praetor in 191, and had the jurisdiction in the city, while his colleagues obtained the provinces. During his praetorship he dedicated the temple of the Great Idaean Mother, on which occasion the Megalesian games were performed for the first time. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Megalesia.) He was one of the ambassadors sent into Asia in 189, to settle the terms of peace with Antiochus the Great. (Liv. 34.1; V. Max. 9.1.3; Liv. 35.24, 36.2, 36, 37.55.) This M. Junius Brutus may be the same as No. 12, who was consul in 178.

Brutus

10. P. Junius Brutus, probably the brother of the preceding, was his colleague in the tribunate, B. C. 195. He was curule aedile in 192, and praetor in 190; in the latter office he had the province of Etruria, where he remained as propraetor in the following year, 189. From thence he was sent by the senate into Further Spain, which was decreed to him as a province. (Liv. 34.1; V. Max. 9.1.3; Liv. 35.41, 36.45, 37.2, 50, 57.)

Brutus

11. D. Junius Brutus, one of the triumvirs for founding a colony in the territory of Sipontum, B. C. 194. (Liv. 34.35.)

The annexed stemma exhibits the probable family connexion of the following persons, Nos. 12 to 17 inclusive.

Brutus

12. M. Junius Brutus, M. F. L. N., the son of No. 9, unless he is the same person, was consul B. C. 178, and had the conduct of the war against the Istri, whom he subdued in the following year, and compelled them to submit to the Romans. (Liv. 40.59, 41.9, 14, 15; Obsequ. 62.) He was one of the ambassadors sent into Asia in 171, to exhort the allies to assist the Romans in their war against Perseus. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the censorship in 169. (Liv. 42.45, 43.16.)

Brutus

13. * Nos. 13, 14, 19, 20, being reckoned jurists, are written by J. T. G. M. Junius Brutus, an eminent Roman jurist, who, judging from his praenomen and the time in which he is said to have lived. was probably a son of No. 12. He is mentioned by Pomponius (Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 39), along with P. Mucius and Manilius, as one of the three founders of civil law; and it may be inferred from Pomponius, that though he was praetor, he never attained the rank of consul. The passage of Pomponius, according to the reading which has been suggested, is as follows: --Post hos fuerunt P. Mucius et Manilius et Brutus [vulg. et Brutus et Manilius], qui fundaverunt jus civile. Ex his P. Mucius etiam decem libellos reliquit, septem Manilius, Brutus tres [vulg. Brutus septem, Manilius tres]. Illi duo consulares fuerunt, Brutus praetorius, P. autem Mucius etiam pontifex maximnus. The transposition of the names Brutus and Manilius makes the clause Illi duo consulares fuerunt, Brutus praetorius, consistent with the former part of the sentence. It also makes the testimony of Pomponius consistent with that of Cicero, who reports, on the authority of Scaevola, that Brutus left no more than three genuine books de jure civil. (De Orat. 2.55.) That more, however, was attributed to Brutus than he really wrote may be inferred from the particularity of Cicero's statement. Brutus is frequently referred to as a high authority on points of law in ancient classical and legal authors (e. g. compare Cic. de Fin. 1.4, and Dig. 7. tit. 1. s. 68, pr.; again, compare Cic. Fam. 7.22, and Gel. 17.7). In the books of Brutus are contained some of the responsa which he gave to clients, and he and Cato are censured by Cicero for publishing the actual names of the persons, male and female, who consulted them, as if, in law, there were anything in a name. (De Orat. 2.32.) From the fragments we possess (de Orat. 2.55), Brutus certainly appears to enter into unlawyer-like details, giving us the very names of the villas where he happened to be. Whether Servius Sulpicius commented upon Brutus is a much disputed question. Ulpian (Dig. 14. tit. 3. s. 5.1) cites Servius libro primo ad Brutums, and Pomponius (Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 2.44) asserts that Servius duos libros ad Brutum perquam brevissimos ad Edictum subscriptos reliquit. It is commonly supposed that Servius, instead of commenting on the work of the jurisconsult, dedicated his short notes on the Edict to M. Junius Brutus, the assassin of Julius Caesar, or else to the father of the so-called tyrannicide. (Zimmern, R. R. G. § 75; Majansius, vol. i. pp. 127-140.)

Brutus

14. M. Junius Brutus, a son of the preceding, studied law like his father, but, instead of seeking magistracies of distinction, became so notorious for the vehemence and harshness of his prosecutions, that he was named Accusator. (Cic. de Off. 2.14.) He did not spare the highest rank, for among the objects of his attack was M. Aemilius Scaurus. (Cic. Font. 13.) He was a warm and impassioned orator, though his oratory was not in good taste. It should be remarked that all we know of the son is derived from the unfavourable representations of Cicero, who belonged to the opposite political party. Brutus, the father, was a man of considerable wealth, possessing baths and three country seats, which were all sold to support the extravagance of the son. Brutus, the son, in the accusation of Cn. Plancus, made some charges of inconsistency against L. Licinius Crassus, the orator; and Cicero twice (de Orat. 2.55, pro Cluent. 51) relates the bons mots (bene dicta) of Crassus, recriminating upon the extravagance of the accuser.

Brutus

15. D. Junius Brutus Gallaecus, M. F. M. N. (Callaecus) or Callaicus, son of No. 12 and brother of No. 13, was a contemporary of the Gracchi, and one of the most celebrated generals of his age. He belonged to the aristocratical party, and in his consulship with P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, in B. C. 138, distinguished himself by his opposition to the tribunes. He refused to bring before the senate a proposition for the purchase of corn for the people; and when the tribunes wished to have the power of exempting ten persons apiece from the military levies, he and his colleague refused to allow them this privilege. In consequence of this they were committed to prison by the tribune C. Curiatius. (V. Max. 3.7.3; Liv. Epit. 55; Cic. de Leg. 3.9.) The province of Further Spain was assigned to Brutus, whither he proceeded in the same year. In order to pacify the province, he assigned lands to those who had served under Viriathus, and founded the town of Valentia. But as Lusitania continued to be overrun with parties of marauders, he laid waste the country in every direction, took numerous towns, and advanced as far as the river Lethe or Oblivio, as the Romans translated the name of the river, which was also called Limaea, Limia or Belion, now Lima. (Strab. iii. p.153; Mela, 3.1; Plin. H.N. 4.22. s. 35.) Here the soldiers at first refused to march further; but when Brutus seized the standard from the standard-bearer, and began to cross the river alone, they immediately followed him. From thence they advanced to the Minius (Minho), which he crossed and continued his march till he arrived at the ocean, where the Romans saw with astonishment the sun set in its waters. In this country he subdued various tribes, among whom the Bracari are mentioned as the most warlike. He also conquered the Gallacci, who had come to the assistance of their neighbours with an army of 60,000 men, and it was from his victory over them that he obtained the surname of Gallaecus. The work of subjugation, however, proceeded but slowly, as many towns after submission again revolted, among which Talabriga is particularly mentioned. In the midst of his successes, he was recalled into Nearer Spain by his relation, Aemilius Lepidus (Appian, App. Hisp. 80), and from thence he proceeded to Rome, where he celebrated a splendid triumph, B. C. 136, for his victories over the Lusitanians and Gallaeci. Drumann (Gesch. Roms, vol. iv. p. 8), misled apparently by a passage in Eutropius (4.19), places his triumph in the same year as that of Scipio's over Numantia, namely, in B. C. 132. (Liv. Epit. 55, 56; Appian, App. Hisp. 71-73; Flor. 2.17.12 ; Ores. 5.5; Vell. 2.5; Cic. pro Balb. 17; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 34, Ti. Gracch. 21; V. Max. 6.4, extern. 1.)

With the booty obtained in Spain, Brutus erected temples and other public buildings, for which the poet L. Accius wrote inscriptions in verse. (Cic. pro Arch. 11; Plin. Nat. 36.4. s. 5.7; V. Max. 8.14.2.) The last time we hear of Brutus is in B. C. 129, when he served under C. Sempronius Tuditanus against the Japydes, and by his military skill gained a victory for the consul, and thereby repaired the losses which the latter had sustained at the commencement of the campaign. (Liv. Epit. 59.)

Brutus was a patron of the poet L. Accius, and for the times was well versed in Greek and Roman literature; he was also not deficient in oratorical talent. (Cic. Brut. 28.) We learn from Cicero (de Am. 2), that he was augur. The Clodia mentioned by Cicero in a letter to Atticus (12.22), whom Orelli supposes to be the mother of this Brutus, was in all probability his wife, and the mother of the consul of B. C. 77. [No. 16.] (Drumann, l.c.)

Brutus

16. D. Junius Brutus, D. F. M. N., son of the preceding, distinguished himself by his opposition to Saturninus in B. C. 100. (Cic. pro Rabir. perd. 7.) He belonged to the aristocratical party, and is alluded to as one of the aristocrats in the oration which Sallust puts into the mouth of Lepidus against Sulla. (Sall. Hist. i. p. 937, ed. Cortius.) He was consul in B. C. 77, with Mamercus Lepidus (Cic. Brut. 47), and in 74 became security for P. Junius before Verres, the praetor urbanus. (Cic. Ver. 1.55, 57.) He was well acquainted with Greek and Roman literature. (Cic. Brut. l.c.) His wife Sempronia was a well-educated, but licentious woman, who carried on an intrigue with Catiline; she received the ambassadors of the Allobroges in her husband's house in 63, when he was absent from Rome. (Sal. Cat. 40.) We have no doubt that the preceding D. Brutus is the person meant in this passage of Sallust, and not D. Brutus Albinus, one of Caesar's assassins [No. 17], as some modern writers suppose, since the latter is called an adolescens by Caesar (Caes. Gal. 3.11) in 56, and therefore not likely to have had Sempronia as his wife in 63; and because we know that Paulla Valeria was to marry Brutus Albinus in 50. (Caelius, ad Fam. 8.7.)

Brutus

17. D. Junius Brutus Albinus, one of Caesar's assassins, who must not be confounded with the more celebrated M. Junius Brutus, was in all probability the son of No. 16 and of Sempronia, as we know that they had children (Sal. Cat. 25), and the praenoelen is the same. This D. Brutus was adopted by A. Postumius Albinus, who was consul B. C. 99 [Albinus, No. 22], whence he is called Brutus Albinus; and this adoption is commemorated on a coin of D. Brutus figured on p. 93. (Plut. Caes. 64, &c., Ant. 11; D. C. 44.14.) We first read of him as serving under Caesar in Gaul when he was still a young man. Caesar gave him the command of the fleet which was sent to attack the Veneti in B. C. 56. (Caes. Gal. 3.11; D. C. 39.40_42.) He seems to have continued in Gaul till almost the close of the war, but his name does not occur frequently, as he did not hold the rank of legatus. He served against Vercingetorix in 52 (Caes. Gal. 7.9), and appears to have returned to Rome in 50, when he married Paulla Valeria. (Cael. ad Fam. 8.7.) On the breaking out of the civil war in the following year (49), he was recalled to active service, and was placed by Caesar over the fleet which was to besiege Massilia. D. Brutus, though inferior in the number of his ships, gained a victory over the enemy, and at length obtained possession of Massilia. (Caes. Civ. 1.36, 56, &c., 2.3-22; D. C. 41.19_22.) After this, he had the command of Further Gaul entrusted to him where he gained a victory over the Bellovaci ; and so highly was he esteemed by Caesar, that on his return from Spain through Italy, in 45, Caesar conferred upon him the honour of riding in his carriage along with Antony and his nephew, the young Octavius. (Plut. Ant. 11.) Caesar gave him still more substantial marks of his favour, by promising him the government of Cisalpine Gaul, with the praetorship for 44 and the consulship for 42. In Caesar's will, read after his death, it was found that D. Brutus had been made one of his heirs in the second degree; and so entirely did he possess the confidence of Caesar, that the other murderers sent him to conduct their victim to the senate-house on the day of the assassination. The motives which induced D. Brutus to take part in the conspiracy against his friend and benefactor are not stated; but he could have no excuse for his crime; and among the instances of base ingratitude shewn on the ides of March, none was so foul and black as that of D. Brutus. (Liv. Epit. 114, 116; D. C. 44.14, 18, 35; Appian, App. BC 2.48, 111, 113, 143, 3.98; Suet. Jul. 81, 83; Vell. 2.56.)

After Caesar's death (44), D. Brutus went into his province of Cisalpine Gaul, and when Antony obtained from the people a grant of this province, Brutus refused to surrender it to him. His conduct was warmly praised by Cicero and the senatorial party; but so little was he prepared to resist Antony, that when the latter crossed the Rubicon towards the close of the year, D. Brutus dared not meet him in the field, but threw himself into Mutina, which was forthwith besieged by Antony. In this town he continued till April in the following year (43), when the siege was raised by the consuls Hirtius and Pansa, who were accompanied by Octavianus. Antony was defeated, and fled across the Alps; and as Hirtius and Pansa had fallen in the battle, the command devolved upon D. Brutus, since the senate was unwilling to entrust Octavianus with any further power. He was not, however, in a condition to follow up his victory against Antony, who meantime had collected a large army north of the Alps, and was preparing to march again into Italy. Octavianus also had obtained the consulship, not-withstanding the ill-will of the senate, and had procured the enactment of the lex Pedia, by which the murderers of Caesar were outlawed, and the execution of the sentence entrusted to himself. D. Brutus was now in a dangerous position. Antony was marching against him from the north, Octavianus from the south; his own troops could not be depended upon, and L. Plancus had already deserted him and gone over to Antony with three legions. He therefore determined to cross over to M. Brutus in Macedonia; but his soldiers deserted him on the march, and he was betrayed by Camillus, a Gaulish chief, upon whom he had formerly conferred some favours, and put to death, by order of Antony, by one Capenus, a Sequanan, B. C. 43. (Cicero's Letters and Philippics; Liv. Epit. 117_120 ; D. C. 45.9, 14, 46.35, &c., 53; Appian, App. BC 3.74, 81, 97, 98; Veil. Pat. 2.64.)

Brutus

18. M. Junius Brutus, praetor in B. C. 88, was sent with his colleague Servilius by the senate, at the request of Marius, to command Sulla, who was then at Nola, not to advance nearer Rome. (Plut. Sull. 9.) On Sulla's arrival at Rome, Brutus was proscribed with ten other senators. (Appian, App. BC 1.60.) He subsequently served under Cn Papirius Carbo, the consul, B. C. 82, and was sent by him in a fishing-boat to Lilybaeum; but finding himself surrounded by Pompey's fleet, he put an end to his own life, that he might not fall into the hands of his enemies. (Liv. Epit. 89.) Cicero, in a letter to Atticus (9.14), mentions a report, that Caesar intended to revenge the death of M. Brutus and Carbo, and of all those who had been put to death by Sulla with the assistance of Pompey. This M. Junius Brutus is not to be confounded, as he often is, with L. Junius Brutus Damasippus, praetor in 82 [No. 19], whose surname we know from Livy (Liv. Epit. 86) to have been Lucius; nor with M. Junius Brutus [No. 20], the father of the so-called tyrannicide.

Brutus

19. L. Junius Brutus Damasippus, an active and unprincipled partizan of Marius. The younger Marius, reduced to despair by the blockade of Praeneste (B. C. 82), came to the resolution that his greatest enemies should not survive him. Accordingly he managed to despatch a letter to L. Brutus, who was then praetor urbanus at Rome, desiring him to summon the senate upon some false pretext, and to procure the assassination of P. Antistius, of C. Papirius Carbo, L. Domitius, and Scaevola, the pontifex maximus. The cruel and treacherous order was too well obeyed, and the dead bodies of the murdered senators were thrown unburied into the Tiber. (Appian, App. BC 1.88; Vell. 2.26.)

In the same year L. Brutus made an ineffectual attempt to relieve Praeneste: the consul of Cn. Papirius Carbo, despairing of success, fled to Africa ; but L. Brutus, with others of his party, advanced towards Rome, and were defeated by Sulla. L. Brutus was taken prisoner in the battle, and was put to death by Sulla. (Appian, App. BC 1.92, 93 ; Sall. Cut. 51; Dio Cass. Frag. 135, p. 54, ed. Reimar.)

Some confusion has arisen from the circumstance that the subject of this article is sometimes spoken of with the cognomen Damasippus, and sometimes with that of Brutus. (Duker, ad Flor. 3.21. p. 685.) He appears now as L. Damasippus, and now as Junius Brutus. Perhaps he was adopted by one of the Licinii, for the cognomen Damasippus belonged to the Licinian gens (Cic. Fam. 7.23); and an adoptive name, in reference to the original name, was often alternative, not cumulative. The same person may have been L. Junius Brutus and L. Licinius Damasippus.

Brutus

20. M. Junius Brutus, the father of the socalled tyrannicide [No. 21] is described by Cicero as well skilled in public and private law; but he will not allow him to be numbered in the rank of orators. (Cic. Brut. 36.) He was tribune B. C. 83 (Cic. pro Quint. 20); and the M. Brutus who is spoken of with some asperity by Cicero for having made an impious attempt to colonize Capua (de, Leg. Agr. 2.33, 34, 36), in opposition to omens and auspices, and who is said, like all who shared in that enterprise, to have perished miserably, is supposed by Ernesti (Clav. Cic.) after Mazochius (Amphitheat. Camp. p. 9; Poleni, Thes. Supp. 5.217) to have been the pater interfectoris. He no doubt made this attempt in his tribunate.

M. Brutus married Servilia, who was the daughter of Q. Servilius and of Livia, the sister of Drusus, and thus was half-sister of Cato of Utica by the mother's side. Another Servilia, her sister, was the wife of Lucullus. The Q. Servilius Caepio, who afterwards adopted her son, was her brother. She traced her descent from Servilius Ahala, the assassin of Sp. Maelius. (Plut. Brut. 1.) This asserted descent explains the pronoun vester in the masculine gender in a passage of Cicero's Orator (100.45), which was addressed to the younger Brutus: " Quomodo enim vester axilla ala factus est, nisi fuga literae vastioris." It is in reference to this descent that we find the head of Servilius Ahala on the coins of the so-called tyrannieide : one is figured on p. 83. Servilia was a woman of great ability, and had much influence with Cato, who became the father-in-law of her son.

Brutus, besides his well-known son, had two daughters by Servilia, one of whom was married to M. Lepidus, the triumvir (Vell. 2.88 ; compare Cic. Fam. 12.2), and the other to C. Cassius. The name, other than Junia, of the former, is not known. Asconius, in his commentary on the speech pro Milone, mentions Cornelia, cujus castitas pro exemplo habita est, as the wife of Lepidus ; but perhaps Lepidus was married twice, as a daughter of Brutus could not have borne the family-name Cornelia. The wife of Cassius was named Tertia, or, by way of endearment, Tertulla. Some have supposed, without reason, that Brutus had but one daughter, Tertia Junia, who was married successively to Lepidus and Cassius; and Lipsius (cited Orelli, Onomast. Cic. s. v. Tertia) erroneously (see ad Att. 14.20) makes Tertia the daughter of Servilia by her second husband.

There is much reason to suspect that Servilia intrigued with Caesar (Plut. Brut. 5), who is said to have believed his assassin to have been his own son; but this cannot have been, for Caesar was only fifteen years older than the younger Brutus. Scandal went so far as to assert, that Tertia, like her mother, was one of Caesar's mistresses; and Suetonius (Suet. Jul. 30) has preserved a double entendre of Cicero in allusion to Servilia's supposed connivance at her daughter's shame. This anecdote refers to a time subsequent to the death of the elder Brutus. The death of Tertia, A. D. 22, when she must have been very old, is recorded by Tacitus (Tac. Ann. 3.76), who states that the images of twenty of the noblest families graced her funeral; " sed praefulgebant Cassius atque Brutus, eo ipso, quod effigies eorum non visebantur."

The knowledge of these family connexions gives additional interest to the history of the times. Though the reputed dishonour of his wife did not prevent the father from actively espousing the political party to which Caesar belonged, yet it is possible, but not very probable, that the rumour of Caesar's amours with a mother and a sister may afterwards have deepened the hostility of the son.

When Lepidus, B. C. 77, endeavoured to succeed to the leadership which had become vacant by the death of Sulla, Brutus was placed in command of the forces in Cisalpine Gaul; and, at Mutina, he for some time withstood the attack of Pompey's hitherto victorious army; but, at length, either finding himself in danger of being betrayed, or voluntarily determining to change sides, he put himself and his troops in the power of Pompey, on the understanding that their lives should be spared, and, sending a few horsemen before him, retired to the small town of Rhegium near the Padus. There, on the next day, he was slain by one Geminius, who was sent by Pompey for that purpose. Pompey (who had forwarded despatches on successive days to the senate to announce first the surrender and then the death of Brutus) was much and justly blamed for this cruel and perfidious act. (Plut. Pomp. 16; Appian, App. BC 2.111; Liv. Epit. 90.)

Brutus

21. M. Junius Brutus, the son of No. 20, by Servilia, was born in the autumn of B. C. 85. He was subsequently adopted by his uncle Q. Servilius Caepio, which must have happened before B. C. 59, and hence he is sometimes called Caepio or Q. Caepio Brutus, especially in public documents, on coins, and inscriptions. (On the coin annexed the inscription on the reverse is Caepio Brutus Procos.) He lost his father at the early age of eight years, but his mother, Servilia, assisted by her two brothers, continued to conduct his education with the utmost care, and he acquired an extraordinary love for learning, which he never lost in after-life. M. Porcius Cato became his great political model, though in his moral conduct he did not follow his example. In 59, when J. Caesar was consul and had to silence some young and vehement republicans, L. Vettius on the instigation of the tribune, P. Vatinius, denounced Brutus as an accomplice in a conspiracy against Pompey's life; but as it was well known that Brutus was perfectly innocent, Caesar put a stop to the prosecution. When it was thought necessary in 58 to remove from Rome some of the leading republicans, Cato was sent to Cyprus, and Brutus accompanied him. After his return to Rome, Brutus seems for some years to have taken no part in public proceedings, and not to have attached himself to any party. In 53 he followed Appius Claudius, whose daughter Claudia he had married, to Cilicia, where he did not indeed, like his father-in-law, plunder the provincials, but could not resist the temptation to lend out money at an exorbitant rate of interest. He probably did not return to Rome till 51. During his absence Cicero had defended Mile, and Brutus also now wrote a speech, in which he endeavoured to show that Milo not only deserved no punishment, but ought to be rewarded for having murdered Clodius. This circumstance, together with Cicero's becoming the successor of Appius Claudius in Cilicia, brought about a sort of connexion between Cicero and Brutus, though each disliked the sentiments of the other. Cicero, when in Cilicia, took care that the money which Brutus had lent was repaid him, but at the same time endeavoured to prevent his transgressing the laws of usury, at which Brutus, who did not receive as high a percentage as he had expected, appears to have been greatly offended. In 50 Brutus defended Appius Claudius, against whom two serious charges were brought, and succeeded in getting him acquitted.

When the civil war broke out in 49 between Caesar and Pompey, it was believed that Brutus would join the party of Caesar; but Brutus, who saw in Pompey the champion of the aristocracy, suppressed his personal feelings towards the murderer of his father, and followed the example of Cato, who declared for Pompey. Brutus, however, did not accompany Cato, but went with P. Sextius to Cilicia, probably to arrange matters with his debtors in Asia, and to make preparations for the war. In 48, he distinguished himself in the engagements in the neighbourhood of Dyrrhachium, and Pompey treated him with great distinction. In the battle of Pharsalia, Caesar gave orders not to kill Brutus, probably for the sake of Servilia, who implored Caesar to spare him. (Plut. Brut. 5.) After the battle, Brutus escaped to Larissa, but did not follow Pompey any further. Here he wrote a letter to Caesar soliciting his pardon, which was generously granted by the conqueror, who even invited Brutus to come to him. Brutus obeyed, and, if we may believe Plutarch (Plut. Brut. 6), he informed Caesar of Pompey's flight to Egypt. As Caesar did not require Brutus to fight against his former friends, he withdrew from the war, and spent his time either in Greece or at Rome in his favourite literary pursuits, He did not join Caesar again till the autumn of 47 at Nicaea in Bithynia, on which occasion he endeavoured to interfere with the conqueroron behalf of a friend of king Deiotarus, but Caesar refused to comply with the request. In the year following Brutus was made governor of Cisalpine Gaul, though he had been neither praetor nor consul; and he continued to serve the dictator Caesar, although the latter was making war against Brutus's own relatives in Africa. The provincials in Cisalpine Gaul were delighted with the mild treatment and justice of Brutus, whom they honoured with public monuments : Caesar too afterwards testified his satisfaction with his administration. As his province was far from the scene of war, Brutus as usual devoted his time to study. At this time, Cicero made him one of the speakers in the treatise which bears the name of Brutus, and in 46 he dedicated to him his Orator. In 45, Brutus was succeeded in his province by C. Vibius Pansa, but did not go to Rome immediately. Before his return, he published his eulogy on Cato, in which Cicero found sentiments that hurt his vanity, as his suppression of the conspiracy of Catiline was not spoken of in the terms he would have liked. Accordingly, upon the arrival of Brutus at one of his country-seats near Rome, a certain degree of coldness and want of confidence existed between the two, although they wrote letters to each other, and Cicero, on the advice of Atticus, even dedicated to him his work De Finibus. About this time, Brutus divorced Claudia, apparently for no other reason than that he wished to marry Portia, the daughter of Cato. After the close of Caesar's war in Spain, Brutus went from Rome to meet him, and, in the beginning of August, returned to the city with him.

In 44 Brutus was praetor urbanus, and C. Cassius, who had been disappointed in his hope of obtaining the praetorship, was as much enraged against Brutus as against the dictator. Caesar promised Brutus the province of Macedonia, and also held out to him hopes of the consulship. Up to this time Brutus had borne Caesar's dictatorship without expressing the least displeasure; he had served the dictator and paid homage to him, nor had he thought it contrary to his republican principles to accept favours and offices from him. His change of mind which took place at this time was not the result of his reflections or principles, but of the influence which Cassius exercised over him. He was persuaded by Cassius to join the conspirators who murdered Caesar on the 15th of March, 44. After the deed was perpetrated he went to the forum to address the people, but found no favour. The senate, indeed, pardoned the murderers, but this was only a farce played by M. Antony to obtain their sanction of the Julian laws. The murderers then assembled the people on the capitol, and Brutus in his speech promised that they should receive all that Caesar had destined for them. All parties were apparently reconciled. But the arrangements which Antony made for the funeral of Caesar, and in consequence of which the people made an assault upon the houses of the conspirators, shewed them clearly the intentions of Antony. Brutus withdrew into the country, and during his stay there he gave, in the month of July, most splendid Ludi Apollinares, hoping thereby to turn the disposition of the people in his favour. But in this he was disappointed, and as Antony assumed a threatening position, he sailed in September to Athens with the intention of taking possession of the province of Macedonia, which Caesar had assigned him, and of repelling force by force. After staying at Athens a short time in the company of philosophers and several young Romans who attached themselves to his cause, and after receiving a very large sum of money from the quaestor M. Appuleius, who brought it from Asia, Brutus intended to proceed to Macedonia. But the senate had now assigned this province to Antony, who, however, towards the end of the year, transferred it to his brother, the praetor C. Antonius. Before, however, the latter arrived, Brutus, who had been joined by the scattered troops of Pompey, marched into Macedonia, where he was received by Q. Hortensius, the son of the orator, as his legitimate successor. Brutus found an abundance of arms, and the troops stationed in Illyricum, as well as several other legions, joined him. C. Antonius, who also arrived in the meantime, was unable to advance beyond the coast of Illyricum, and at the beginning of 43 was besieged in Apollonia and compelled to surrender. Brutus disregarded all the decrees of the senate, and resolved to act for himself. While Octavianus in the month of August 43 obtained the condemnation of Caesar's murderers, Brutus was engaged in a war against some Thracian tribes to procure money for himself and booty for his soldiers. About this time he assumed the title imperator, which, together with his portrait, appear on many of his coins. The things which were going on meantime in Italy seemed to affect neither Brutus nor Cassius, but after the triumvirate was established, Brutus began to prepare for war. Instead, however, of endeavouring to prevent the enemy from landing on the coast of the Ionian sea, Brutus and Cassius separated their forces and ravaged Rhodes and Lycia. Loaded with booty, Brutus and Cassius met again at Sardis in the beginning of 42, but it was only the fear of the triumvirs that prevented them from falling out with each other. Their carelessness was indeed so great, that only a small fleet was sent to the Ionian sea under the command of Statius Murcus. Before leaving Asia, Brutus had a dream which foreboded his ruin at Philippi, and in the autumn of 42 the battle of Philippi was fought. In the first engagement Brutus conquered the army of Octavianus, while Cassius was defeated by Antony. But in a second battle, about twenty days later, Brutus was defeated and fell upon his own sword.

From his first visit to Asia, Brutus appears as a man of considerable wealth, and he afterwards increased it by lending money upon interest. He possessed an extraordinary memory and a still more extraordinary imagination, which led him into superstitions differing only from those of the multitude by a strange admixture of philosophy. He was deficient in knowledge of mankind and the world, whence he was never able to foresee the course of things, and was ever surprised at the results. Hence also his want of independent judgment. The quantity of his varied knowledge, which he had acquired by extensive reading and his intercourse with philosophers, was beyond his control, and was rather an encumberance to him than anything else. Nothing had such charms for him as study, which he prosecuted by day and night, at home and abroad. Works

Brutus made abridgements of the historical works of C. Fannius and Caelius Antipater, and on the eve of the battle of Pharsalus he is said to have been engaged in making an abridgement of Polybius. He also wrote several philosophical treatises, among which we have mention of those On Duties, On Patience, and On Virtue. The best of his literary productions, however, appear to have been his orations, though they are censured as having been too dry and serious, and deficient in animation. Nothing would enable us so much to form a clear notion of his character as his letters, but we unfortunately possess only a few (among those of Cicero), the authenticity of which is acknowledged, and a few passages of others quoted by Plutarch. (Brut. 2, 22, Cic. 45.) Even in the time of Plutarch (Plut. Brut. 53) there seem to have existed forged letters of Brutus; and the two books of " Epistolae ad Brutum," usually printed among the works of Cicero, are unquestionably the fabrications of a later time. The name of Brutus, his fatal deed, his fortunes and personal character, offered great temptations for the forgery of such documents; but these letters contain gross blunders in history and chronology, to which attention was first drawn by Erasmus of Rotterdam. (Epist. 1.1.) Brutus is also said to have attempted to write poetry, which does not seem to have possessed much merit. Further Information

Cicero, in the passages collected in Orelli's Onomast. Tull. ii. pp. 319-324; Plut. Life of Brutus ; Appian, App. BC 2.11-4.132; Dio Cass. lib. xli.--xlviii. Respecting his oratory and the extant fragments of it, see Meyer, Orat. Rom. Fragm. p. 443, &c., 2nd edit.; comp. Weichert, Poet. Lat. Reliq. p. 125 ; Drumann, Gesch. Roms, iv. pp. 18-44.

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 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. 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 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.