![]() Lucius Junius Brutus was the founder of the Roman Republic and traditionally one of the first consuls in 509 BC. ![]() According to these accounts he died fighting the Etruscans, who were trying to reinstate Tarquin. Other stories, probably spurious, tell us that he drove his colleague Collatinus from Rome, passed a law exiling all Tarquins, and even executed his own sons for plotting to restore the monarchy. After becoming consul he is supposed to have humanized certain primitive cults, created the rex sacrorum (an office upon which were bestowed the religious functions once belonging to the king), expanded the senate, and introduced several of the practices used by the Roman republic, including the alternation of the fasces, the symbols of authority, between the two consuls. Then, again according to legend, when the Delphic oracle announced to him and Tarquin's sons that he who first kissed his mother would rule Rome after Tarquin, Brutus stumbled and kissed the earth (terra mater). In his youth he avoided death at Tarquin's hands by supposedly feigning idiocy (whence his surname Brutus). Brutus is probably an historical figure, but everything told of him smacks of the miraculous and the mythical. ![]() ![]() According to legend, Brutus had been Tarquin's equerry and now became Rome's first consul, with Tarquinius Collatinus, Lucretia's husband, as his colleague. Brutus is said to have overthrown the monarchy by expelling his uncle, King Tarquin the Proud, after the latter's son caused a great furor by raping and forcing the suicide of the noble Lucretia. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |