Digital Prosopography of the Roman Republic

IUNI0001 L. Iunius (46a, Supb. 5.356ff.) M. f. Brutus

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Status

• Patrician
• Nobilis Expand

  Cic. Tusc. 4.1.2 (founder of family's nobilitas), VM. 7.3.2

Life Dates

• 540?, birth (Sumner Orators) Expand

  Sumner R1.

• 509, death - violent (Broughton MRR I) Expand

  KIA, against Tarquins.

Relationships

related to

M. Iunius (53) M. f. Brutus = Q. Servilius Caepio Brutus (pr. 44) (Zmeskal 2009) Expand

Cic. Brut. 222 (Drusus)

Career

• Consul 509 (Broughton MRR I) Expand
  • The other Iunii prominent in the Roman Republic appeared late in the record and were all plebeian, even though they claimed descent from the Liberator (Nepos, Att. 18; Cic. Phil. 1.2; 4.7; 10.14; 11.6; Att. 13.40; Plut. Brut. 1). Brutus' claim to historicity depends in the main on the mention of his name by Polybius in connection with the first treaty between Carthage and Rome and the year of the dedication of the Capitoline temple, and on the unanimity with which Roman tradition names him as the liberator and a member of the first college of Consuls. Beloch (RG 230) holds that the limitation of the royal office was gradual and not necessarily to be dated in 509 or 507, while De Sanctis (1.397ff.) considers the revolution legendary, and most recently, Hanell, Das altrömische Eponyme Amt (Lund, 1946), holds that until the Decemviri there was only one eponymous officer each year in an era that began with the dedication of the Capitoline temple and had no necessary connection with the decline of the royal office. He would therefore exclude Brutus, along with other figures like Collatinus and Lucretius, who were probably worked into the developed form of the consular list for 509 because of their part in the story of the expulsion of the Tarquins. There is however no real cause to doubt so dee-rooted and enduring a tradition which was set so early in its main outlines and so profoundly affected Roman feeling (see my review of Hanell, CW 43 [1949-50] 25-27). Moreover there are clear cases of families, like the Claudii, with both patrician and plebeian branches, and like the Papirii, where the patrician branch died out leaving only the plebeian one in later times. (Broughton MRR I)
  • According to Roman tradition Brutus led in the expulsion of the Tarquin kings, and became a member of the first college of Consuls (Augustine CD 3.16;Polyb. 3.22.1; Auct. ad Herenn. 4.66; Cic. Rep. 2.46; De Or. 1.37; 2.225; Brut. 53; Planc. 60; Phil. 1.13; 3.9 and 11; Fin. 2.66; Liv. 1.60.3; 2.2; Diod. 10.22; Dion. Hal. 4.76-5.1; Ovid Fast. 2.849ff.; Val. Max. 4.4.1; Plin. NH 36.112; Plut. Popl. 1; Brut. 1; Tac. Ann. 1.1; Suet. Iul. 80.3; Auct. Vir. Ill. 10.4; Eutrop. 1.9.2; Chr. 354; Fast. Hyd.; Chr. Pasc.; Oros. 2.5.1; Cassiod.; Zon. 7.12; cf. Cic. Tusc. 4.2; Phil. 2.114; Sen. Cons. Marc. 16.2; Dio fr. 11; and 44.12.1; Pompon. Dig. 1.2.2.15-16; Grueber, CRRBM 1.479f.; 2.477; Cesano, Stud. Num. 1 [1942] 138ff.). See Degrassi 88, 348f. To Brutus are attributed a group of constitutional and religious institutions, 1. the taking of auspices before entrance upon office (Val. Max. 4.4.1); 2. a curiate law for the consular imperium (Tac. Ann. 11.22); 3. alternation of the fasces (Liv. 2.1.8; attributed to Poplicola, Cic. Rep. 2.55); 4. expansion of the Senate by adding the minores gentes (Liv. 2.1.10; Dion. Hal. 5.13.2, with Poplicola, cf. Fest. 304 L; Tac. Ann. 11.25; Serv. ad Aen. 1.426); 5. creation of the Rex Sacrorum (Liv. 2.2.1-2; Dion. Hal. 5.1.4); 6. a commemorative dedication to Carna on the Coelian Hill (Macrob. Sat. 1.12.31; cf. on the Mother of the Lares, 1.7.35). Finding his sons plotting, along with the nephews of Collatinus, for the return of the Tarquins he tried them and put them to death (Liv. 2.2-5; 4.15.3; 8.34.3; Dion. Hal. 5.2, and 8-12; Val. Max. 5.8.1; Propert. 4.1.45; Sil. Ital. 13.721; Plut. Popl. 4; Brut. 1; Flor. 1.3.5; Ampel. 18.1; Dio 44.12.1; Auct. Vir. Ill. 10.5; Oros. 2.5.1; cf. Polyb. 6.54.5; see below, on Collatinus). He either induced his colleague Collatinus to abdicate his office (Liv.) and go voluntarily into exile, or caused the abrogation of his imperium (Piso, Cic., Obseq.), and carried a law sending all Tarquins into exile (Piso fr. 19 Peter; Cic. Off. 3.40; Rep. 2.53, cf. 46; Brut. 53; Liv. 2.2; 4.15.3; Dion. Hal. 5.10-12, and 19; 8.49.6; Plut. Popl. 4-7; Obseq. 70; Eutrop. 1.9.3; Oros. 2.5.1; Zon. 7.12). He presided over the election of Valerius Poplicola as Collatinus' successor, and was later slain in battle with the Etruscans at the Silva Arsia in combat with Aruns Tarquinius{2} (Liv. 2.6-7; Dion. Hal. 5.15-17; Plut. Popl. 9; cf. Auct. ad Herenn. 4.66; Cic. Tusc. 1.89; 4.50; Sen. 74; Paradox. 1.12; Val. Max. 5.6.1; Flor. 1.4.8; Dio fr. 13; Auct. Vir. Ill. 10.6; Eutrop. 1.10.1; Oros. 2.5.2). (Broughton MRR I)

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