B R U T U S. 



firutus, 

 Lucius 



Jui.ius, 



ted 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 

 principal town, Ardea, it happened, that the sons of 

 Tarquin, and others of the royal house, being enter- 

 tained 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 Collatinus, was declared to be the most 

 deserving ; and, that Sextus Tarquinius, whose pas- 

 sions were inflamed by the virtue winch 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 ac- 

 quainted them with her dishonour, and its author, 

 and then plunged a dagger in her heart. That Bru- 

 tus 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 

 inspiration, he threw off his disguise, and, in an ani- 

 mated strain of eloquence, engaged all who were pre- 

 sent to bind themselves with him in a solemn oath to 

 pursue the atrocious offender, and all the family with 

 fire and sword, and to abolish the regal name in 

 Rome. The body of Lucretia being then removed 

 into the Forum of Constantia, (the town where Col- 

 latinus resided), Brutus reproved the lamentations 

 of the friends of the deceased, and called upon the 

 inhabitants to shew 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 Tarquin. 

 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 employed 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 different route, and arrived in 

 the camp at .about the same time that Tarquin ap- 

 peared 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 ; but 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 consuls elected, Lucius Junius Brutus, and 

 Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, 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 consulate, and go into vo- 

 luntary banishment, for which counsel no other rea- 

 son was alleged, than that he was a Tarquin, and 

 that the people would never think their liberty se- 

 cure while any one of his family and name was in- 

 vested with high authority. The advice of Brutus, 

 seconded by Lucretius, Lucretia's father, and enfor- 

 ced 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 Colla- 

 tinus retired to Lavinium. Still, however, there remain- 

 ed 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 admi- 

 nistration of republican laws. In the number of the 

 disaffected were included the two sons of Brutus, 

 Titus, and Tiberius, whose mother was the sister of 

 the Vitellii, principal partizans of royalty. The con- 

 spiracy having been detected, it was necessary that 

 the offenders should suffer the punishment of traitors, 

 and the nature of his office imposed upon Brutus, the 

 duty of seeing the sentence carried into effect. I 

 the presence of the consuls, and of the whole city, 

 the conspirators were first scourged, and then be- 

 headed 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 deli- 

 berately 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 expulsion 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 off 

 Brutus. The matrons of Rome honoured the aven- 

 ger of their honour with a mourning of one entire 

 year. See T. Livii, Historiarum t Sfc. ; Dionysii Ha- 

 lic 'mass, et Plutarchi Opera, (j. M.) 



BRUTUS, MARCUS JUNIUS. It was believed by 

 many that Julius Caesar was the father of Brutus, 

 and Caesar seem's to have been of the same opinion. 

 It is certain that he was criminally connected with 

 Servilia, the sister of Cato, and mother of Brutus, 

 about the time of his birth. His father, whether 

 real or nominal, was put to death by Pompey, for 

 his rigorous treatment of the city of Mutina. Mar- 

 cus was educated in all the learning and philosophy 

 of the times, and applied himself to the study of elo- 

 quence with such success, that Cicro has given him 

 a place in his list of noble orators. When the con- 

 flicting parties of Pompey and Caesar made the ulti- 

 mate appeal to arms, Brutus espoused the cause of 

 Pompey with his characteristic decision, not from 

 partiality to the man, whom till that time he refused 

 to salute in passing, but thinking his designs less dan- 

 gerous to the integrity of the republic than those ef 

 his rival. When he arrived in Macedonia, and enter- 

 ed the camp of Pompey, he was received by that 



Lucius 

 Juuius. 



