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Brutus Biography

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BRUTUS, MARCUS JUNIUS (c.55-42 B.C.). One of the conspirators against Cæsar. His father bore the same name, was a follower of Marius, and, suffering defeat from Pompey, was at the latter's direction put to death. At this time the son was but eight years old, and his education was in part watched over by his uncle, Marcus Cato Uticensis (Servilia, mother of Brutus, was Cato's half-sister), whose philosophy he adopted. He studied and practiced law, as had his father before him, but civil life was interrupted by political conditions. On the outbreak of hostilities between Cæsar and Pompey he gave his support to the man who destroyed his father. Cæsar, however, victor at Pharsalus, pardoned him took him into favor, and appointed him Governor of Cisalpine Gaul (48). Here his conduct was that of a high-minded official, and in 44 the office of prætor urbanus was conferred upon him by Cæsar. It was while holding this place that he became a conspirator against the promoter of his career. After the assassination of Cæsar, unable to win a following in Rome, he escaped to Athens and succeeded in raising a large force and becoming powerful in Macedonia. Cassius (q.v.) had been equally successful in equipping an army in Asia, and together they proceeded to Philippi, where they joined battle with Antony and Octavianus. As commander of the Republican right, Brutus repulsed Octavianus; but Cassius, overcome by Antony and feeling that their cause was lost; made an end of himself. This example Brutus soon followed. His wife Porcia, daughter of Cato Uticensis, is said by Plutarch and others to have committed suicide by swallowing red-hot coals. The glamor thrown over the character of Brutus by Shakespeare will, unhappily, not bear scrutiny. He was at one time a relentless usurer and did not scruple to apply to Cicero as Governor of Cilicia for power to make unlawful exactions. His political affiliations, too, appear suspicious and his joining the conspirators seems to have been the result of the seductive power of the astute Cassius rather than of any deep-set convictions. Somewhere he was weak or corrupt; but it is charitable to believe that the principles of his Stoic philosophy grew upon him and that he became worthier of his grand old uncle, Cato. His studies present him in his most amiable light: for, notwithstanding his military successes, he was a student, not a man of action, a theorist, not a doer of deeds. His philosophical treatises, dealing with virtue, duties, and patience, have been lost, but we still have part of his correspondence with Cicero. Cicero dedicated to him his Orator, a description of the ideal orator, and called his history of Roman oratory Brutus.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. IV (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 73.