BRUT Mark Junius (Marcus Iunius Brutus)

(85? -42 BC)
Brutus came from a family tradition consciously cultivated tiranoborcheskie. On the paternal side his family erected to Lutsiyu Junius Brutus, toppled in 509 BC. Tarquins; the maternal line among his ancestors was Gaius Servilius Agala, who in 439 BC. killed a pretender to dictatorial power Spur Melia. In fact, this rather dubious pedigree: born Brutus with certainty be traced no further than the end of 4. BC. Once in 77 BC. father of Brutus was treacherously killed by Pompey the Great, the boy fathered his mother's brother Quintus Servilius Tsepion, and because contemporaries often referred to as Quintus Tsepiona Brutus. The first mention of Brutus as a political figure refers to the period TN. first triumvirate took shape in 60 BC. Union of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus. Then Brutus was falsely accused of plotting the assassination of Pompey (59 BC). Soon (in 58 BC) he went to Cyprus (actually in exile) in the retinue of another of his uncle, Cato. Perhaps this time include the provision of Brutus the province under the loan interest. Next time Brutus went east in 53 BC, accompanying his father-Appiah Claudius, the proconsul of Cilicia in Asia Minor. Perhaps, this trip was also associated with financial transactions.
When in 49 BC. civil war broke out between Caesar and Pompey, Brutus sided with Pompey, the murderers of his father. Without a doubt, this has prompted an example of his uncle Cato. Brutus distinguished himself in battle of Dirrahii, on the Adriatic coast of modern Albania. After the decisive defeat of Pompey at Pharsalus in northern Greece (48 BC) Caesar not only preserved the life of Brutus, but appointed to positions. Future murderer of Caesar became proconsul Tsizalpiyskoy Gaul (46 BC), the urban praetor in Rome (44 BC), 43 BC. he had been promised in the management of Macedonia, the province to the north of Greece, and in the future - Consulate. Despite all these signs of the location of Caesar, Brutus responded to the proposal of Gaius Cassius Longinus slay the great dictator and became the soul of the conspiracy. The traditional version of the murder made immortal little bar - sad surprise Caesar ( 'And you, Brutus! "), Who saw Brutus among the attackers.

After a fiery speech of Mark Antony at the funeral of Caesar, the leaders of the conspiracy thought it best to leave the capital. In September, 44 BC. Brutus was in Athens. Then he went north to Macedonia, a province which has appointed him Caesar. Former proconsul Quintus Hortensius, son of the famous orator Hortense, recognized the legitimacy of claims of Brutus and gave him the province with the army.

Meanwhile, Anthony summon the Senate for themselves, rather, for his brother Guy, Macedonia. But when Guy crossed the Adriatic Sea, the troops of Brutus locked him in the Apollo coast and forced to surrender (March 43 to AD). After that, the Senate approved a Brutus in the position of proconsul of Macedonia, and after the defeat of Antony at Moutinho in northern Italy (April 43 to BC) Brutus to Cassius was appointed commander of troops in the eastern provinces. First Brutus led an expedition to the Thracians, mainly for production. But when in November 43 BC. Anthony, . Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate, . Brutus, . who understood, . that he will have to fight against this new coalition, . moved to Asia Minor, . to recruit people here, . fleet and cash, . then join Cassio,
. Precious time has been spent on raising money on the coast of Lycia in Asia Minor and the island of Rhodes from its shores, and only in the second half of the 42 BC. Brutus and Cassius marched westward. Meeting with the army of Antony and Octavian took place in Macedonia, which took double the Battle of Philippi. In the first battle Brutus defeated Octavian, but Cassius, who thought that defeat is inevitable, committed suicide. In the second battle, about three weeks later, Brutus was defeated, and then committed suicide (23 October 42 to AD).

Although Brutus is often portrayed a man of strict rules, which fought for the republican freedom, rejecting unnecessary bloodshed, he is very far from being 'the noblest of the Romans', as Shakespeare called it. Typical senator aristocrat, he stubbornly defended legalized privileges and other interests of nobility, class, traditionally located in Rome in power. Demonstrated by the severity of Brutus to the provincials and his willingness to become proconsul, . to which he was totally unprepared, . talk about his unwavering confidence, . that calling people, . belonging to its class, . is, . to edit and use the state apparatus in their own interests,
. But what he was not able to reconcile, it is by assigning one person full power. However, there is no doubt, . that Brutus, . scientist and scholar (his name is a great speaker, . writer and politician Cicero named one of his great treatise, . and several others, . equally important, . they were dedicated to Brutus), . could find other reasons to justify their bloody deeds,
. Greek philosophy justify the killing of a tyrant, and the seduction of Caesar Servilia, the mother of Brutus, could give him in the hands of personal motives for murder. However, all these considerations are secondary: the true wine Caesar was to take his post-life dictator, dictator perpetuus. At Brutus, . certainly were under the influence of his uncle Cato, . he genuinely admired (this is evidenced by the divorce of Brutus with Claudia for the sake of his marriage to Portia, . daughter of his uncle, . after his death, . and panegyric, . at the same time composed Brutus Cato), . had the firm conviction, . that should dominate all the class of senators, . rather than individual,
. In the words of Brutus himself: 'I vosprotivlyus any force that would place himself above the law'.