Brutus

Brutus; or, the Fall of Tarquin (1819), a tragedy by John Howard Payne.[ Park Theatre, in repertory.] Lucius Junius (James Pritchard), whose noble family has been deposed and murdered by the usurping Tarquins, escapes death by feigning idiocy and becoming the Tarquin court jester. The Tarquin queen, Tullia (Mrs. Barnes), sneeringly gives him another name, Brutus. But when Sextus, a Tarquin prince, rapes Lucretia (Miss Leesugg), a senator's wife, Brutus drops his disguise to lead the Romans against the usurpers. His son Titus (Edmund Simpson) sides with the enemy because of his love of Princess Tarquinia, so it falls to his father to sentence him to death, proclaiming, “Justice is satisfied and Rome is free!” Payne compiled the play from seven older works on the subject, including Voltaire's Brutus, a Tragedy and English pieces by Nathaniel Lee, William Duncombe, Hugh Downman, and Richard Cumberland. The play was first presented in England with Edmund Kean in the lead. Producer Edmund Simpson was apparently unprepared for its American success and had booked other plays to follow quickly. But its success caused it to be brought back regularly in the repertory. Kean performed it on his American tour, and the play featured importantly in the repertories of Junius Brutus Booth, Edwin Booth, and James Wallack. William Winter called the play “a series of episodes in Roman history, rather than a single dramatic narrative,” but considered it “valuable for its tumultuous action, its splendid pictorial effects and its moments of pathos.”

Brutus, name of a Roman plebeian family of the gens Junia, the Junian clan, which traced its descent from L. Junius Brutus (see 1 below) and included the Brutus (see 2 below) who murdered Julius Caesar.

1. Lucius Junius Brutus, the traditional founder of the Roman republic and probably a historical figure, although accounts of him in ancient sources contain legendary elements. He pretended to be an idiot (brutus) in order to escape the fate of his brother who had been murdered by their uncle, Tarquinius Superbus, the (last) Roman king. When Lucretia was raped by Tarquinius' son, Brutus led an insurrection that ousted the Tarquin family, and was elected the first consul (traditionally in 509 BC) with L. Tarquinius Collatinus (Lucretia's husband). He was famous for his strict justice and put to death his own two sons who were attempting to restore the Tarquins. He was killed fighting an Etruscan army which was engaged in the same attempt.

2. Marcus Junius Brutus, c.85–42 BC, the prime assassin of Julius Caesar. In 49 BC he joined in the civil war on Pompey's side against Julius Caesar, but after the former's defeat at Pharsalus he sought Caesar's pardon, which was granted. In c.45 he married Porcia, the daughter of M. Porcius Cato whom he greatly admired and by whose republican sympathies he was influenced. In 44 Caesar appointed him as praetor, and he appeared to bear Caesar's dictatorship with equanimity, but Cassius, a fellow-praetor, prevailed upon him to lead a conspiracy to murder Caesar, playing upon his patriotic desire to follow his famous ancestor and restore the republic. It is related by Suetonius that Caesar gave up the struggle against his murderers when he saw Brutus among them, exclaiming in Greek, kai su, teknon (‘even you, my child!’). (The Latin version, ‘Et tu, Brute!’ (‘even you, Brutus!’) was made famous by Shakespeare.) Soon after the assassination Brutus was forced to leave Italy through public hostility and went to Greece, and with Cassius he prepared to resist the army of the triumvirs Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian. In the autumn of 42 Antony and Octavian defeated Brutus and Cassius at Philippi in eastern Macedonia, and Brutus committed suicide.

In his youth Brutus acquired a love of learning which never left him. He was one of Cicero's favourite literary adversaries, and Cicero seems to have felt affection for him, while failing to win him over to his own way of thinking in oratory, philosophy, or politics. In his treatise Brutus (see below) Cicero made him one of the speakers, and he dedicated to Brutus his Orator, De finibus, and Tusculan disputations. In Cicero's correspondence some letters of Brutus survive from which we learn of his financial dealings with the people of Salamis (in Cyprus); these throw a different light on his character: he lent money to the town at 48 per cent interest, and was prepared to go to any length to recover the debt.

3. Decimus Junius Brutus, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar (not to be confused with Marcus Junius, 2 above, to whom he was only distantly related). As a young man he served under Caesar in Gaul and fought for him in the civil war against Pompey. Caesar trusted Brutus so completely that he promised him the governorship of Cisalpine Gaul and allowed him to be his escort to the senate house on the day of his assassination. After Caesar's murder Brutus retired to Cisalpine Gaul and refused to surrender it to Mark Antony. The latter proceeded to besiege him and his republican forces in Mutina (43 BC), but with the aid of a senatorial army Brutus succeeded in repulsing him. Later, however, finding himself under attack by both Octavian and Antony, he tried to cross over to M. Brutus (2 above) in Macedonia, but was betrayed and killed.

Contrived eponym and progenitor of the British people, as found in Geoffrey of Monmouth (1136). A leader of the Trojans, he dreams of the temple of Diana beyond the setting sun. After invading the island, he defeats the giant Gogmagog and establishes law in the land named for him, Britain [Welsh Prydain].

For other uses, see Brutus (disambiguation).

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Brutus.

Brutus is a Roman cognomen used by several politicians of the Junii family, especially in the Roman Republic. The plural of Brutus is Bruti, and the vocative form is Brute, as immortalized in the quotation "Et tu, Brute?".

Notable ancient Romans with this cognomen include:

• Marcus Junius Brutus— Caesar's friend and most famous assassin.
• Marcus Junius Brutus the Elder, the father of the aforementioned assassin.
• Lucius Junius Brutus — traditional founder of the Republic, whose sons were:
  • Tiberius Junius Brutus — rebel.
  • Titus Junius Brutus — rebel.
• Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus — commander and another one of Caesar's assassins.
• Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus — commander and consul of Hispania Ulterior from 138 BC to 136 BC.

See also

• Brutus (Cicero), a history of Roman oratory by Cicero, named after Caesar's assassin.
• Brutus of Troy who, according to legend, founded Britain.
• Brutus Greenshield, legendary king of the Britons.
• "Junius Brutus", the pen name of the author Charles Blount.
• "Brutus", the pen name of Robert Yates.

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