BRUTUS, Lucius JuNius, was a son of Marcus Ju nius and Tarquinia, daughter of Tarquin the Proud. His name was held in great veneration by the Romans, who regarded him as the author of their liberties, and founder of the Roman republic; and, as commonly hap pens, this veneration, aided by antiquity, has caused too much of the marvellous to be admitted into his history. Livy informs us, that Brutus, having seen the chiefs of the city, and among them his brother, cut off by the tyrant, resolved to save himself if possible from the jealousy of Tarquin, by allowing his property to be alien ated without opposition, and by assuming such a cha racter of stupidity, and even fatuity, as gained him the name of Brutus among his countrymen. Notwithstand ing when Tarquin, alarmed at the portent of a serpent in the palace, resolved to send confidential messengers to consult the oracle at Delphos, Brutus was chosen to accompany two of his sons on an errand which was held of the greatest import, and in a voyage which !oust have appeared at that time long and critical. It is added, that Brutus, in allusion to his disguise of his true cha racter, made an offer to Apollo of a staff of gold inclosed in a wooden tube; and that when in reply to the enqui ry of the Tarquins, " which of them should reign in Rome ?" a voice issued from the cave, which declared, " that he should have the supreme authority at Rome who should first salute his mother with a kiss." Bru tus, in order to determine the accomplishment of the oracle upon himself, fell to the earth as if by accident, and saluted that with a kiss. On their return to Rome, they found the king engaged in preparations for making war upon the Rutuli. During the siege of their prin cipal town, Ardea, it happened, that the sons of Tar quip, and others of the royal house, being entertained at the quarters of Sextus Tarquinius, warmly disputed a question which implied little of modern refinement, each maintaining the superior excellency of his own wife. At length it was agreed that the whole party should mount their horses, and surprise the ladies as they might happen to be employed at the time. The result of the trial was, that Lucretia, the wife of Colla tinus, was declared to be the most deserving ; and, that Sextus Tarquinius, whose passions were inflamed by the virtue which should have awed them, resolved that Lucretia should be their victim. Having, after a short interval, accomplished his villanous design, he left the insulted matron to her shame and her revenge. Having convoked her principal male relations and friends, she first acquainted them with her dishonour, and its author, and then plunged a dagger in her heart. That Brutus should have been present on such an occasion is not easily reconciled with his reputed fatuity, unless his friends might be supposed to be in a secret which yet remained a secret to the rest of the royal family, and to all Rome. Now, however, as if moved by he threw off his disguise, and, in an animated strain of eloquence, engaged all who were present to bind them selves with him in a solemn oath to pursue the atroci ous offender, and all the family, with fire and sword, and to abolish the regal name in Rome. The body of Lu cretia being then removed into the Forum of Constantia, (the town where Collatinus resided,) Brutus reproved the lamentations of the friends of the deceased, and called upon the inhabitants to show themselves men, and Romans, and take arms against the authors of the crime. The youth of the place soon crowded around him in arms. A garrison was appointed to defend the walls, and guard the gates, that none might pass out of them, and carry tidings of what was going on to Tar quin. From Constantia, Brutus, accompanied with a
body of men, repaired to Rome, and in an oration of great pathos and force, called upon the people to punish the offenders, and expel the tyrant. The laborious and degrading employments in which Tarquin had long em ployed many of the citizens, treating them more like slaves than soldiers, furnished him also with a popular and persuasive topic of declamation. Intelligence of these commotions soon reached the camp before Ardea, and summoned Tarquin to Rome. Brutus foreseeing such a step, and prepared to turn it to the advantage of his enterprise, marched from Rome to Ardea by a diffe rent route, and arrived in the camp at about the same time that Tarquin appeared before the walls of Rome. The gates of the city were closed against him ; and the army before Ardea were, in like manner, engaged to drive his sons out of the camp. Two of them followed their father into Etruria ; hut Sextus, the perpetrator of the outrage, having repaired to his province, was slain there by the Gabii, who hated him for his former rapine and murders committed among them. The Comitia of Centuries were now assembled at Rome, and two con suls elected, Lucius Junius Brutus, and Lucius Tarqui nius Collatinns. 244 years after the founding of the city. One of the first acts of Brutus, according to Livy, was, to engage his colleague, Collatinus, to resign the con sulate, and go into voluntary banishment, for which counsel no other reason was alleged, than that he was a Tarquin, and that the people would never think their liberty secure while any one of his family and name was invested with high authority. The advice of Brutus, seconded by Lucretius, Lucretia's father, and enforced by the voice of the principal men of the state, and of the Roman people, had all the force of a command from a power that was not to be resisted, and Collatinus retired to Lavinium. Still, however, there remained in Rome a royal faction, consisting principally of young men who had been the associates of the exiled princes, and whom the manners of a licentious court had ill prepared for submission to the rigorous administration of republican laws. In the number of the disaffected were included the two sons of Brutus, Titus, and Tiberius, whose mo ther was the sister of the Vitellii, principal partizans of royalty. The conspiracy having been detected, it was necessary that the offenders should suffer the punish ment of traitors, and the nature of his office imposed upon Brutus the duty of seeing the sentence carried into effect. In the presence of the consuls, and of the whole city, the conspirators were first scourged, and then beheaded by the axe of the lictors. The father was sunk in the patriot, and the reclamations of nature were not heard in favour of malefactors, who, for the gratification of disorderly passions, would have delibe rately sacrificed their father and their country to the fury of an enraged and sanguinary tyrant. Brutus, whose stern and inflexible virtue was beheld with admiration, even by primitive Romans, did not long survive the ex pulsion of the tyrant. He fell in the battle which was fought on the first invasion of the Tarquins, by the hand of Aruns, one of the king's sons, who fell at the same time beneath the stroke of Brutus. The matrons of Rome honoured the avenger of their honour with a mourning of one entire year. See 'I'. Livii, Historiarum, ; Dionusii Halicarnass. et Plutarchi Opera. (y. M.)