| Bio |

Who they were

Marcus Junius Brutus was born in the autumn of 85 BC^[1]. His father, also named Marcus Junius Brutus, was killed on Pompey's orders in 77 BC^[1], when the boy was eight^[1]. His mother, Servilia, was the half-sister of Cato of Utica^[1]. Her brother, Quintus Servilius Caepio, adopted the boy^[1], who was therefore sometimes called Quintus Caepio Brutus^[1]. Servilia and her brothers oversaw his education with great care, and he acquired a love of learning that never left him^[1]. The family name also carried weight. Plutarch says Brutus was believed to descend from Junius Brutus, who drove out the Tarquins, Rome's last royal family, though his enemies denied it^[2].

Cato became Brutus's great political model^[1]. In 58 BC Cato was sent to Cyprus, and Brutus went with him^[1]. Brutus also studied Greek philosophy, favouring the school of Plato^[2]. When civil war broke out in 49 BC between Caesar and Pompey, many expected Brutus to join Caesar. Instead he followed Cato's example and sided with Pompey, the man who had ordered his father's death^[1]. Plutarch says he thought Pompey's cause the better one^[2]. At the battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, Caesar gave orders that Brutus should not be killed^[1]. Afterwards Brutus wrote asking for pardon, and Caesar granted it generously^[1].

Caesar then advanced Brutus. In 46 BC he made him governor of Cisalpine Gaul^[1], the Gaulish lands on the Italian side of the Alps^[2]. In 44 BC Brutus became city praetor^[1], the senior post among the praetors^[2]. According to Plutarch, Caesar said Brutus must have the first office^[2], though he also feared Brutus's proud temper^[2]. Meanwhile Romans left notes on Brutus's judgement seat, such as "Brutus, are you asleep?"^[2] Cassius persuaded him to join the plot^[1]. On 15 March 44 BC the conspirators killed Caesar at a meeting of the Senate held in a portico of Pompey's theatre^[1][2]. Plutarch says Caesar stopped resisting when he saw Brutus draw his sword^[2].

After the killing, the Senate pardoned the conspirators^[1]. But Mark Antony's funeral for Caesar stirred the crowd, and men ran to burn the houses of the assassins^[2]. Brutus left Rome and in September 44 BC sailed to Athens^[1]. He then took over Macedonia and raised an army^[1]. In autumn 42 BC he and Cassius faced the forces of Octavian and Antony at Philippi^[1]. Cassius was defeated and died^[2]. About twenty days later Brutus lost a second battle and fell on his own sword^[1]. Antony had Brutus's body wrapped in a purple robe and sent the ashes to Servilia^[2].

The killing did not restore the Republic. In 43 BC Octavian, named in Caesar's will as his son and heir, became consul and had Caesar's killers condemned in their absence^[2][1]. He, Antony and Lepidus then divided the provinces and, in Plutarch's account, proscribed two hundred men, Cicero among them^[2]. Brutus's name lived on in other ways. Cicero wrote a treatise called Brutus, with Brutus as one of its speakers, and dedicated his Orator to him^[1]. Coins issued in his name showed a cap of freedom between two daggers and the legend EID MAR, short for the Ides of March^[3][4]. Shakespeare built Julius Caesar from Plutarch's Lives of Caesar, Brutus and Antony, which he knew in North's English translation^[5][5].

Brutus was a bookish man. Plutarch says that before the battle of Pharsalus, in fierce summer heat, he went on writing until evening, making a summary of the historian Polybius^[2]. Years later, as he prepared to move his army out of Asia in 42 BC^[1], he slept little and read a book until the third watch of the night, when his officers came to him^[2]. William Smith's dictionary says nothing charmed him as much as study, which he pursued by day and night^[1].

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