Brutus from julius caesar biography pompey

Mention the name of Brutus and, for many, it will bring to mind the Roman Republican who, desperate to preserve the constitution, committed murder with the noblest of intentions. The carefully considered assassination of Julius Caesar, a supposed tyrant in the making, is the deed for which Marcus Junius Brutus has gone down in history. This legendary act leaves us with the impression that Brutus was a nobleman of high moral standing and unbending principles, largely due to Shakespeare’s portrayal of him in Julius Caesar. But a survey of ancient sources reveals that this Brutus could, and often did, behave in questionable ways. Although the details of his life are often sketchy, there are several episodes that challenge his reputation as ‘an honourable man’. Furthermore, such behaviour occurs repeatedly, so his less-than-honourable nature cannot be written off as one uncharacteristic moment in an otherwise unblemished life.

The earliest recorded episode of dubious behaviour finds Brutus at the centre of a case of extortion, which was to have fatal consequences. At some time during the mid-50s BC, the Cypriot city of Salamis sent a deputation to Rome, requesting a loan. A few years earlier, while in his late twenties, Brutus had accompanied his uncle, Cato the Younger, a staunch Republican, on a successful expedition to annex Cyprus to the expanding Roman world and so the Salaminians were now seeking the aid of their patrons. Brutus agreed to help by having decrees passed in the Senate, which would make it legal for two fellow Romans, named Scaptius and Matinius, to lend the money to the Salaminians, which they did. This all appeared innocuous enough, but the truth would slowly emerge.

In 53 BC Brutus gained his first step on the Roman political ladder, as quaestor. In this financial administrative role, he accompanied the governor of Cilicia, his father-in-law, Appius Claudius Pulcher, to his province. It was to Cilicia, an

Roman politician and assassin of Julius Caesar

"Brutus" redirects here. For other people with the same name, see Brutus (disambiguation).

Marcus Junius Brutus (; Latin:[ˈmaːrkʊsjuːniʊsˈbruːtʊs]; c. 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC) was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, which was retained as his legal name. He is often referred to simply as Brutus.

Early in his political career, Brutus opposed Pompey, who was responsible for Brutus' father's death. He also was close to Caesar. However, Caesar's attempts to evade accountability in the law courts put him at greater odds with his opponents in the Roman elite and the senate. Brutus eventually came to oppose Caesar and sided with Pompey against Caesar's forces during the ensuing civil war (49–45 BC). Pompey was defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48, after which Brutus surrendered to Caesar, who granted him amnesty.

With Caesar's increasingly monarchical and autocratic behaviour after the civil war, several senators who later called themselves liberatores (liberators) plotted to assassinate him. Brutus took a leading role in the assassination, which was carried out successfully on the Ides of March (15 March) of 44 BC. In a settlement between the liberatores and the Caesarians, an amnesty was granted to the assassins while Caesar's acts were upheld for two years.

Popular unrest forced Brutus and his brother-in-law, fellow assassin Gaius Cassius Longinus, to leave Rome in April 44. After a complex political realignment, Octavian – Caesar's adopted son – made himself consul and, with his colleague, passed a law retroactively making Brutus and the other conspirators murderers. This led to a second civil war, in which Mark Antony and Octavian fought the liberatores led by Brutus and Cassius. The Caesarians decisively defeated the outnumbered armies

Youth

Marcus Junius Brutus was born in or about 85 BCE, as the eldest son of a Roman politician with the same name, a man who never made it to the top. Father Brutus was killed in 78 by Gnaeus Pompey, a young general who was to become famous. The boy was educated by the half-brother of his mother Servilia, Marcus Porcius Cato, and was later adopted by a relative of his mother, Quintus Servilius Caepio. To honor his adoptive father, the young man started to call himself Marcus Junius Brutus Caepio.

In 59, a man named Vettius declared that Brutus and several other men were part of a conspiracy to kill Pompey. In fact, there was no such conspiracy, and one of the consuls of that year, the popular politician Gaius Julius Caesar, an ally of Pompey, did his best to get rid of the accusations. Caesar had a good reason for this: he had an affair with Brutus' mother, and he did not want to bring the young man, whom he had often met at the house of his mistress, into troubles.

During the next two or three years, Brutus was with Cato on Cyprus, which had been conquered by Pompey and was finally in annexed in 58. We happen to know that Brutus offered his help the city of Salamis, which desperately needed help; the loan had an interest of no less than 48%. As a rich man, he returned to Rome, where he married a woman named Claudia.

Early Career

In 53, he was chosen quaestor: he now occupied the financial magistracy that a Roman politician had to occupy when he started his career. Brutus was responsible for the taxes in a province called Cilicia (where his father-in-law was governor), and used the opportunity (and the army of Cilicia) to settle accounts in Cyprus. The next governor of Cilicia, Marcus Tullius Cicero, was to condemn this behavior.

The Second Civil War

Meanwhile, the situation in R

Roman politician and soldier

This article is about the father of the assassin of Julius Caesar. For other people named "Brutus", see Brutus (disambiguation).

Marcus Junius Brutus (died 77 BC) was a plebeian tribune of the Roman Republic in 83 BC and the founder of the colony in Capua. He was an associate of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who led a revolt against the senate after the death of Sulla. He was captured by Pompey and treacherously executed. He was the father of a homonymous son, who assassinated Julius Caesar in 44.

Biography

He served as tribune of the plebs in 83 BC. During his year, he passed a bill establishing a colony at Capua. François Hinard, in Les proscriptions de Rome républicaine, argues that this Brutus was proscribed in the Sullan proscriptions but survived through the dictatorship by taking refuge in Gaul.

In 77 BC, Brutus was stationed, probably as a legate, under Lepidus in Cisalpine Gaul. He was allied with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who as consul was agitating against Sulla's constitutional settlement, advocating for the victims of the proscriptions, and opposed a state funeral for Sulla. Lepidus turned to violence and raised an army against his consular colleague Quintus Lutatius Catulus when Catulus successfully blocked his proposals. There is no evidence that he held the praetorship.

Lepidus' army was defeated outside of Rome by Catulus' forces. Some sources assert that Pompey or both Catulus and Pompey were responsible, but the most reliable narratives mention Catulus only. Brutus was stationed at Mutina, where he defended the stronghold against Pompey, who had been sent by the senate to dislodge him. He withstood Pompey's attacks for some time, but was eventually surrendered – his troops either turned on him or he surrendered of his own accord – after which he was allowed to go free. Following this, he went to the town of Regium Lepidi, w