Editing Lucius Junius Brutus (section)

== Brutus in literature and art ==
[[File:David Brutus.jpg|thumb|''The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons'' by [[Jacques-Louis David|David]], 1789]]

The profile of Lucius Junius Brutus is on a coin that was minted by [[Marcus Junius Brutus]] following the assassination of [[Julius Caesar]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/acans/caesar/CivilWars_Libertas.htm|title=Libertas: The Coins of Brutus|website=www.humanities.mq.edu.au|access-date=2018-02-04}}</ref>

Lucius Junius Brutus is prominent in English literature, and he was popular among [[British Whigs|British]] and [[Whig Party (United States)|American Whigs]].{{cn|date=June 2021}}

A reference to Lucius Junius Brutus is in the following lines from Shakespeare's play [[Julius Caesar (play)|''The Tragedie of Julius Cæsar'']], (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 of the senatorial faction that plotted against [[Julius Caesar]] after he had the [[Roman Senate]] declare him [[Roman dictator|dictator]] for life, was that he was attempting to make himself a king, and a co-conspirator [[Gaius Cassius Longinus|Cassius]], enticed Brutus' direct descendant, [[Marcus Junius Brutus]], to join the conspiracy by referring to his ancestor.

Lucius Junius Brutus is a leading character in Shakespeare's ''[[Rape of Lucrece]]'', in Benjamin Britten's opera ''[[The Rape of Lucretia]]'' based on André Obey's play ''Le Viol de Lucrèce'', and in [[Nathaniel Lee]]'s [[English Restoration|Restoration]] tragedy, ''[[Lucius Junius Brutus; Father of his Country]]''. Before the [[Glorious Revolution]], Nathaniel Lee's Lucius Junius Brutus was banned in December of 1680 for portraying the Whig cause (Protestantism, no royal prerogatives, encouragement to trade and industry, empire) as Roman republicanism.

Lucius Junius Brutus (referred to simply as "Brutus") is discussed briefly in [[Søren Kierkegaard]]'s work, ''[[Fear and Trembling]]''. There, Brutus serves as an example of what Kierkegaard calls "tragic heroism." Alongside the examples of [[Agamemnon]] and [[Jephthah]], the tragic heroism of Brutus is presented in stark contrast to the faith of the Biblical figure, [[Abraham]].

In ''[[The Mikado]]'', the protagonist Nanki-poo refers to his father the Emperor as "the Lucius Junius Brutus of his race", for being willing to enforce his own law even if it means killing his son.

The memory of L. J. Brutus also had a profound impact on Italian patriots, including those who established the ill-fated short-lived [[Roman Republic (19th century)|Roman Republic]] in February 1849.

Brutus was a hero of [[republicanism]] during the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] and [[Neoclassicism|Neoclassical]] periods. In 1789, at the dawn of the [[French Revolution]], master [[painting|painter]] [[Jacques-Louis David]] publicly exhibited his politically charged master-work, ''[[The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons]]'', to great controversy.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Jacques-Louis David |last=Brookner |first=Anita |author-link=Anita Brookner |year=1980 |publisher=Harper & Row |location=New York |isbn=0-06-430507-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/jacqueslouisdavi0000broo/page/90 90] |url=https://archive.org/details/jacqueslouisdavi0000broo/page/90 }}</ref>  David's contemporary, [[Guillaume Guillon-Lethière]] depicted the scene of Brutus' sons' executions in grand style in his work ''[[Brutus Condemning His Sons to Death]]'' (1788).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.clarkart.edu/artpiece/detail/brutus-condemning-his-sons-to-death|title = Brutus Condemning His Sons to Death}}{{dead link|date=April 2025}}</ref>