Lucius Junius Brutus - The Oath of Brutus

Legendary Roman hero who established Republican government at Rome. He was the son of a rich Roman, on whose death Lucius Tarquinius Superbus seized the property and killed an elder brother. He escaped by feigning idiocy, from which he got his name (brutus means ‘stupid’). When popular indignation was roused at the rape of Lucretia by Sextus, he drove the royal family from Rome. He was elected one of the first two consuls (509 BC).

Lucius Junius Brutus (or Lucius Iunius Brutus) was the founder of the Roman Republic and traditionally one of the first Consuls in 509 BC.

Prior to the establishment of the Roman Republic, Rome had been ruled by kings. Brutus led the revolt that overthrew the last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, after the rape of the noblewoman (and kinswoman of Brutus) Lucretia at the hands of Tarquin's son Sextus Tarquinius. According to Livy, Brutus had a number of grievances against the king, amongst them was the fact that Tarquin had orchestrated the murder of his brother who was a powerful senator, opposed to Tarquin's assumption of the throne.

Brutus then gained the trust of Tarquin's family by feigning slow-wittedness (in Latin brutus translates to dullard), thereby allowing the Tarquins to underestimate him as a potential threat. Upon returning to Rome, Brutus was forced to fight in one of Rome's unending wars with neighboring Italian tribes. Brutus returned to the city once he heard about the rape of Lucretia. Lucretia, believing that the rape dishonored her and her family, committed suicide by stabbing herself with a dagger after confessing all to a gathering of the extended family (including Brutus). According to legend, Brutus grabbed the dagger from Lucretia's breast after her death and immediately shouted for the overthrow of the Tarquins. Soon, Brutus would achieve this goal, causing Tarquin Superbus and his family to flee back to their ancestral home of Etruria in exile. In place of kings, Brutus declared power to be in the hands of the Senate, with him as one of the first two Praetors, executive officers that would later become the Roman office of Consul.

The Oath of Brutus

According to Livy, after the expulsion of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus: "His [Brutus'] first act was to make the people, while the state of liberty was still fresh upon their tongues, swear a solemn oath never to allow any man to be king in Rome, hoping by this means to forestall future attempts by persuation or bribery to restore the monarchy."

The Oath of Brutus, whether factual or legendary, had a profound impact on the ancient Romans. Lucius Junius Brutus is quite prominent in English literature, and he was quite popular among British and American Whigs. Brutus is in the following lines from Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar" (Cassius to Marcus Brutus, Act 1, Scene 2).

"O, you and I have heard our fathers say, There was a Brutus once that would have brookt Th'eternal devil to keep his state in Rome As easily as a king."

One of the main charges against Caesar was that he was attempting to make himself a king, and Cassius enticed Marcus Brutus to join the conspiracy by referring to his ancestor. Brutus is a leading character in Shakespeare's "Rape of Lucrece," and in Nathaniel Lee's play (1681), "Lucius Junius Brutus; Brutus also had a profound impact on Italian patriots, including those who established the ill-fated Roman Republic in February 1849.