Editing Lucius Junius Brutus (section)

==Overthrow of the monarchy==
[[File:Capitoline Brutus Musei Capitolini MC1183.jpg|thumb|The [[Capitoline Brutus]] (now in the [[Capitoline Museums]]) is a bronze bust dated 4th to early 3rd centuries BC. It was initially thought to be a bust of Lucius Brutus (hence its name), but modern scholars have rejected this attribution.]]
{{main|Overthrow of the Roman monarchy}}

According to Roman tradition, Brutus led the revolt that [[Overthrow of the Roman monarchy|overthrew]] the last king, [[Lucius Tarquinius Superbus]].{{sfn|Broughton|1951|p=1}} The coup was prompted by the rape of the noblewoman [[Lucretia]] by a son of the king, [[Sextus Tarquinius]]; Brutus was joined in this plotting by among others, Lucretia's father, [[Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus]] and [[Publius Valerius Poplicola]].{{sfn|Cornell|1995|p=215}}

Brutus was the son of [[Tarquinia (mother of Lucius Brutus)|Tarquinia]], daughter of Rome's fifth king [[Lucius Tarquinius Priscus]] and sister to Rome's seventh king Tarquinius Superbus.{{sfn|Livy|loc=[[s:From the Founding of the City/Book 1#56|1.56]]}}

According to Livy, Brutus had a number of grievances against his uncle the king. Amongst them was the fact that Tarquinius had put to death a number of the chief men of Rome, including Brutus' brother.  Brutus avoided the distrust of Tarquinius's family by feigning that he was slow-witted (in Latin ''brutus'' translates to dullard).{{sfn|Livy|loc=[[s:From the Founding of the City/Book 1#56|1.56]]}}

He accompanied Tarquinius's sons on a trip to the [[Oracle of Delphi]]. The sons asked the oracle which of them was going to be Rome's next king. The Oracle of Delphi responded that the first among them to kiss their mother "shall hold supreme sway in Rome."{{sfn|Livy|loc=[[s:From the Founding of the City/Book 1#56|1.56]]}} Brutus interpreted "mother" to mean [[Gaia]], so he pretended to trip and kissed the ground.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davies |first=Norman |title=Europe: a history |date=1996 |isbn=0-19-520912-5 |location=Oxford |oclc=35593922 |page=113}}</ref>

Brutus, along with [[Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus]], [[Publius Valerius Poplicola]], and [[Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus]] were summoned by [[Lucretia]] to [[Collatia]] after she had been raped by [[Sextus Tarquinius]], the son of the king Tarquinius Superbus.  Lucretia, believing that the rape dishonoured her and her family, committed suicide by stabbing herself with a dagger after telling of what had befallen her.  According to legend, Brutus grabbed the dagger from Lucretia's breast after her death and immediately shouted for the overthrow of the Tarquins.{{sfn|Livy|loc=[[s:From the Founding of the City/Book 1#58|1.58–59]]}}

The four men gathered the youth of Collatia, then went to Rome where Brutus summoned the people to the forum and exhorted them to rise up against the king. Later accounts, like that in Livy, assert that Brutus was at the time one of the cavalry officers – ''[[Tribune#Tribune of the Celeres|tribunus celerum]]''. This is likely an insertion for constitutional propriety; Cicero indicates instead that he was a private citizen.{{sfn|Ogilvie|1970|p=228, dismissing {{harvnb|Livy|loc=1.59.7}}, in favour of Cicero, ''De re publica'', 2.47}} The people voted for the deposition of the king, and the banishment of the royal family.{{sfn|Livy|loc=[[s:From the Founding of the City/Book 1#59|1.59]]}}

The leaders of the revolt were close relatives of the king: Brutus was the king's nephew and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus was king's cousin.{{sfn|Cornell|1995|p=215}} The king, who was conducting a war near and camped at [[Ardea, Lazio|Ardea]], rushed to Rome on news of the coup, but found the city barred; at the same time, the coup leaders won over the army and then expelled the king's sons.{{sfn|Cornell|1995|p=215}} Tarquinius Superbus fled with his family into exile.{{sfn|Livy|loc=[[s:From the Founding of the City/Book 1#59|1.59–60]]}}

In the aftermath following the overthrow Brutus is credited by later historians such as [[Tacitus]] as "establishing [[Roman liberty|liberty]] and the [[Roman consul|consulate]]".

=== Oath of Brutus ===
[[File:François-Joseph Navez001.jpg|thumb|"The oath of Brutus" by [[François-Joseph Navez]] ]]

According to Livy, Brutus' first act after the expulsion of [[Lucius Tarquinius Superbus]] was to bring the people to swear an oath never to allow any man again to be king in Rome.

{{quote|
{{lang|la|Omnium primum avidum novae libertatis populum, ne postmodum flecti precibus aut donis regiis posset, iure iurando adegit neminem Romae passuros regnare.}} 

His first act was to secure the people, who were now jealous of their newly-recovered liberty, from being influenced by any entreaties or bribes from the king. He therefore made them take an oath that they would not suffer any man to reign in Rome.{{sfn|Livy|loc=[[s:From the Founding of the City/Book 2#1|2.1]]}}
}}

By swearing an oath that they would suffer no man to rule Rome, it forced the people, desirous of a new liberty, not to be thereafter swayed by the entreaties or bribes of kings.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Streeter |first=Devin |title=The Roman Cycle: Patriotism, Republicanism, and Mimetic Desire in the Roman Republic as Evidenced by Lucius Junius Brutus, Appius Claudius Caecus, and Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus |url=https://www.academia.edu/en/6191008/The_Roman_Cycle_Patriotism_Republicanism_and_Mimetic_Desire_in_the_Roman_Republic_as_Evidenced_by_Lucius_Junius_Brutus_Appius_Claudius_Caecus_and_Lucius_Quinctius_Cincinnatus|publisher=Liberty University Helms School of Government}}</ref> This is, fundamentally, a restatement of the 'private oath' sworn by the conspirators to overthrow the monarchy:{{sfn|Livy|loc=[[s:From the Founding of the City/Book 1#59|1.59]]}}

{{quote|
{{lang|la|Per hunc... castissimum ante regiam iniuriam sanguinem iuro, vosque, di, testes facio me L. Tarquinium Superbum cum scelerata coniuge et omni liberorum stirpe ferro igni quacumque dehinc vi possim exsecuturum, nec illos nec alium quemquam regnare Romae passurum.}}

By this guiltless blood before the kingly injustice I swear – you and the gods as my witnesses – I make myself the one who will prosecute, by what force I am able, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus along with his wicked wife and the whole house of his freeborn children by sword, by fire, by any means hence, so that neither they nor any one else be suffered to rule Rome.
}}

There is no scholarly agreement that the oath took place; it is reported, although differently, by [[Plutarch]] and [[Appian]].<ref>{{harvnb|Plutarch, ''Poplicola''|loc=2}}; {{harvnb|Appian, ''Bellum civile''|loc=2.119}}</ref> Nevertheless, the spirit of the oath inspired later Romans including his descendant [[Marcus Junius Brutus]].