All Topics  
Lucius Junius Brutus

 
Lucius Junius Brutus

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Lucius Junius Brutus
 
 
  Topics Lucius Junius Brutus Topic Home

Lucius Junius Brutus (or Lucius Iunius Brutus) was the founder of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
 and traditionally one of the first Consul
Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Roman Empire. The title was also used in other city states, and revived in modern states, notably French Republic before the Napoleon I of Franceic counter-revolution....
s in 509 BC. He was the primary ancestor of the Junius
Junius (gens)

Junius is the nomen of the gens Junia, an important and very ancient family of ancient Rome, with both Patrician and Plebeian branches. Many notable members of the family bore the cognomen Brutus....
 family in Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
, including Marcus Junius Brutus
Marcus Junius Brutus

File:Portrait Brutus Massimo.jpgMarcus Junius Brutus or Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman Senate of the late Roman Republic....
.

r to the establishment of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
, Rome had been ruled by kings
King of Rome

The King of Rome was the chief magistrate of the Roman Kingdom. The kings, excluding Romulus who held office by his virtue as the city's founder, were all elected by the people of Rome to serve for life, with none of the kings relying on military force to gain the throne....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Lucius Junius Brutus'
Start a new discussion about 'Lucius Junius Brutus'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Eckhel Ii 13
Lucius Junius Brutus (or Lucius Iunius Brutus) was the founder of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
 and traditionally one of the first Consul
Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Roman Empire. The title was also used in other city states, and revived in modern states, notably French Republic before the Napoleon I of Franceic counter-revolution....
s in 509 BC. He was the primary ancestor of the Junius
Junius (gens)

Junius is the nomen of the gens Junia, an important and very ancient family of ancient Rome, with both Patrician and Plebeian branches. Many notable members of the family bore the cognomen Brutus....
 family in Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
, including Marcus Junius Brutus
Marcus Junius Brutus

File:Portrait Brutus Massimo.jpgMarcus Junius Brutus or Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman Senate of the late Roman Republic....
.

Background

Prior to the establishment of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
, Rome had been ruled by kings
King of Rome

The King of Rome was the chief magistrate of the Roman Kingdom. The kings, excluding Romulus who held office by his virtue as the city's founder, were all elected by the people of Rome to serve for life, with none of the kings relying on military force to gain the throne....
. Brutus led the revolt that overthrew the last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus

Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was the last of the seven legendary kings of Rome, son of Tarquinius Priscus and son-in-law of Servius Tullius, the sixth king....
, after the rape of the noblewoman (and kinswoman of Brutus) Lucretia
Lucretia

Lucretia is a legendary figure in the history of the Roman Republic. Her husband was Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, her father was Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus and her brother was Publius Lucretius Tricipitinus, one of the two second Consuls of Rome....
 at the hands of Tarquin's son Sextus Tarquinius
Sextus Tarquinius

Sextus Tarquinius was the son of the last legendary king of Roman Empire, L. Tarquinius Superbus , and a rapist. He is mostly known for his rape of Lucretia, wife of Collatinus and sister of Lucius Junius Brutus....
. The account is from Livy
Livy

Titus Livius , known as Livy in English language, was a Ancient Rome historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome, Ab Urbe Condita, from its founding through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own time....
's Ab Urbe Condita and deals with a point in the history of Rome prior to reliable historical records (virtually all prior records were destroyed by the Gaul
Gaul

Gaul is the name used for the region of Western Europe comprising part of present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River Rhine....
s when they sacked Rome under Brennus
Brennus (4th century BC)

Brennus was a tribal chief of the Senones, a Gaul tribe originating from the modern areas of France known as Seine-et-Marne, Loiret, and Yonne, but which had expanded to occupy northern Italy....
 in 390 BC or 387 BC). According to Livy, Brutus had a number of grievances against the king, amongst them was the fact that Tarquin had orchestrated the murder of his brother.

Biography

Brutus gained the trust of Tarquin's family by feigning slow-wittedness
Mental retardation

Mental retardation is a generalized, triarchic disorder, characterized by subaverage cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors with onset before the age of 18....
 (in Latin brutus translates to dullard), thereby allowing the Tarquins to underestimate him as a potential threat. He accompanied Tarquin's sons on a trip to the Oracle of Delphi. The sons asked the oracle who would be the next ruler of Rome. The Oracle responded the next person to kiss his mother would become king. Brutus interpreted "mother" to mean the Earth, so he pretended to trip and kissed the ground. Upon returning to Rome, Brutus was forced to fight in one of Rome's unending wars with neighboring Italian tribes. Brutus returned to the city once he heard about the rape of Lucretia. Lucretia, believing that the rape dishonored her and her family, committed suicide by stabbing herself with a dagger after confessing all to a gathering of the extended family (including Brutus). This event proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back. According to legend, Brutus grabbed the dagger from Lucretia's breast after her death and immediately shouted for the overthrow of the Tarquins. Soon, Brutus would achieve this goal, causing Tarquin Superbus and his family to flee back to their ancestral home of Etruria
Etruria

Etruria — usually referred to in Greek language and Latin language source texts as Tyrrhenia — was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna and Umbria....
 in exile
Exile

Exile means to be away from one's home while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened by prison or death upon return....
. In place of kings, Brutus declared power to be in the hands of the Senate
Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the Greek historian Polybius, our principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government....
, with him as one of the first two Praetors, executive officers that would later become the Roman office of Consul
Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Roman Empire. The title was also used in other city states, and revived in modern states, notably French Republic before the Napoleon I of Franceic counter-revolution....
.

There is some confusion as to the details of Brutus' life. His consulship, for example, may have been a later embellishment to give the republican institutions greater legitimacy by associating them with the overthrower of the kings. Similarly the tale of Brutus' execution of his own sons for failing in their military duties may well have been a later invention. His consulship came to an end during a battle with the Etruscans, who had allied themselves with the Tarquins to restore them to power in Rome. Brutus's death is romantically described by Livy during the battle. Arruns Tarquinius, the king's son, challenged Brutus from across the battlefield on horseback. Charging at one another, without any thought to their own defense, both were impaled upon one another's spears.

He was said to have served his consulship along with Lucretia's widowed husband.

The Oath of Brutus


According to Livy, after the expulsion of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus: "His [Brutus'] first act was to make the people, while the state of liberty was still fresh upon their tongues, swear a solemn oath never to allow any man to be king in Rome, hoping by this means to forestall future attempts by persuasion or bribery to restore the monarchy." .

In T. Livii, Vol I, Lib II, Cap 1, A.J. Valpy, Londini (1828), p. 352 there is the following Latin version of the above:

"Omnium primum avidum novae libertatis populum, ne postmodum flecti precibus aut donis regiis posset, jurejurando adegit, neminem Romae passuros regnare. (h) …
(h) Compulit ad decernendum addito juramento, fore ut non permitterent quenquam in posterum Romae regem esse."


The Oath of Brutus, whether factual or legendary, had a profound impact on the ancient Romans. Lucius Junius Brutus is quite prominent in English literature, and he was quite popular among British and American Whigs.

A reference to L. J. Brutus is in the following lines from Shakespeare's play The Tragedie of Julius Cæsar
Julius Caesar (play)

Julius Caesar is a Shakespearean tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the conspiracy against the Roman Empire dictator Julius Caesar, his assassination and its aftermath....
, (Cassius to Marcus Brutus, Act 1, Scene 2).

"O, you and I have heard our fathers say,
There was a Brutus once that would have brookt
Th'eternal devil to keep his state in Rome
As easily as a king."


One of the main charges of the senatorial faction that plotted against Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
 after he had the Roman Senate
Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the Greek historian Polybius, our principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government....
 declare him dictator
Dictator

A dictator is an authoritarian ruler who assumes sole and absolute power without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship....
 for life, was that he was attempting to make himself a king, and a co-conspirator Cassius
Gaius Cassius Longinus

For other individuals with a similar name, see Cassius Longinus.Gaius Cassius Longinus was a Roman Republic Roman Senate, the prime mover in the conspiracy against Julius Caesar, and the brother in-law of Marcus Junius Brutus....
, enticed Brutus' direct descendant, Marcus Junius Brutus
Marcus Junius Brutus

File:Portrait Brutus Massimo.jpgMarcus Junius Brutus or Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman Senate of the late Roman Republic....
, to join the conspiracy by referring to his ancestor.

L. J. Brutus is a leading character in Shakespeare's Rape of Lucrece, the tragedy of Coriolanus
Coriolanus (play)

File:Gavin Hamilton - Coriolanus Act V, Scene III edit2.jpgCoriolanus is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, based on the life of the legendary Roman Republic leader, Coriolanus....
, and in Nathaniel Lee
Nathaniel Lee

Nathaniel Lee , was an England dramatist.He was the son of Dr Richard Lee, a Presbyterian clergyman who was rector of Hatfield and held many preferments under the Commonwealth of England....
's play (1680), Lucius Junius Brutus; Father of his Country.

The memory of L. J. Brutus also had a profound impact on Italian patriots, including those who established the ill-fated Roman Republic
Roman Republic (19th century)

The Roman Republic was a short-lived state established on February 9, 1849 when the theocracy Papal States were temporarily overthrown by a democratic revolution, led by Carlo Armellini, Giuseppe Mazzini and Aurelio Saffi....
 in February 1849.

Brutus in art

Brutus was a hero of Republicanism
Republicanism

Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by other means than hereditary, often elections....
 during the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century, in which rationalism was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority....
 and Neoclassical
Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism is the name given to quite distinct Cultural movement in the Decorative art and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw upon Western classical art and culture ....
 periods, and artists like Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David was a highly influential France painter in the Neoclassicism style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away from Rococo frivolity toward a classical austerity and severity, chiming with the moral climate of the final years of th...
 painted scenes of his life.

Lucius Junius Brutus is an English Restoration
English Restoration

The English Restoration, or simply The Restoration began in 1660 when the English monarchy, Scottish monarchy and Irish monarchy were restored under Charles II of England after the Interregnum that followed the English Civil War....
 tragedy by Nathaniel Lee
Nathaniel Lee

Nathaniel Lee , was an England dramatist.He was the son of Dr Richard Lee, a Presbyterian clergyman who was rector of Hatfield and held many preferments under the Commonwealth of England....
.

External links