[Date and place of birth unknown.]
The first Consul, and one of the Founders, of the Roman Republic. Before
he was elected to the Consulate in B.C. 509, he had been the main cause
of the expulsion of royalty from Rome in the persons of Tarquin and his
sons. He fell in battle whilst defending, as Consul, the infant Republic
against the royal exiles fighting for their restoration. These are
admitted facts in the life of Lucius Junius Brutus. His assumption of
idiotcy during the reign of the Tarquins, in order to carry on with
greater safety his patriotic designs, and his connexion with the
affecting history of the devoted Lucretia, are events which in recent
years have passed from the grave volume of history to the more
fascinating pages of poetry. Philosophical historians permit us to sing,
but no longer to believe in, the once cherished narratives of earliest
Rome. The act, whether historical or merely traditionary, which the most
memorably distinguishes his name, is that of ordering the execution of
his two sons, convicted of conspiring for the restoration of the
Tarquins.
[From the bronze in the Palazzo dei Conservatori of the Capitol at
Rome.]