Marcus Iunius Brutus

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 2.24 §2 Q. Caepio (this Brutus)

  M. Junius Brutus, the future tyrannicide, was at this date styled Q. Servilius Caepio after adoption by his uncle. Cicero's parenthesis identifies him for Atticus as the man later famous simply as Brutus.

• Ad Atticum 12.27 §3 where he is waiting for Pansa

  Marcus Brutus was governor of Cisalpine Gaul in 46--45 BC and was expected to hand the province over to his successor Vibius Pansa. Cicero, dreading a visit from Brutus on his way back to Rome, is tracking his movements so he can contrive an excuse to avoid the meeting in his grief.

• Ad Atticum 12.29 §1 I shall have to look for some excuse to Brutus

  Marcus Brutus had been pressing visits and consolation on the grieving Cicero, who wanted solitude at this time. The 'excuse' is a polite pretext to avoid a meeting without giving offence.

• Ad Atticum 13.8 §1 Brutus' epitome of the Caelian annals

  An abridgement made by Marcus Brutus of the historical annals of L. Coelius (Caelius) Antipater, the late-second-century BC historian of the Hannibalic War. Cicero wants the digest as a working reference.

• Ad Atticum 13.11 §1 on our friend Brutus

  Marcus Junius Brutus, the future tyrannicide, then a close intellectual companion and the dedicatee of Cicero's De Finibus. He had been wanting Cicero's daily company at Tusculum.

• Ad Atticum 13.12 §3 promised to Brutus

  Marcus Junius Brutus, the dedicatee of the De Finibus. Atticus had reported that Brutus was willing to receive the dedication.

• Ad Atticum 13.13 §1 unless perhaps Brutus

  Marcus Brutus, dedicatee of the companion De Finibus; Cicero wonders, half in jest, whether Varro's jealousy is directed at him. "That, by Hercules, was all we needed," he adds in mock dismay.

• Ad Atticum 13.23 §1 Brutus

  Marcus Junius Brutus, the future tyrannicide and dedicatee of Cicero's De Finibus, then preparing to leave Rome on a sudden long journey. Cicero is weighing whether to keep him company at Rome or Tusculum.

• Ad Atticum 13.35 §2 Brutus's affection

  M. Iunius Brutus, the future tyrannicide and dedicatee of Cicero's De Finibus; Cicero takes pleasure in reports of Brutus's regard for him, relayed by Atticus.

• Ad Atticum 13.38 §1 our Brutus's daily and tireless praise

  M. Iunius Brutus, whose repeated praise of Cicero has, Cicero supposes, finally shamed the young Quintus into writing him a civil letter.

• Ad Atticum 13.41 §2 If indeed Brutus too

  M. Iunius Brutus, whose added weight in the matter would, Cicero says, settle the question beyond doubt.

• Ad Atticum 13.44 §1 Brutus has been with me

  Marcus Iunius Brutus, the future tyrannicide, here a close friend and literary correspondent; he had dedicated to Cicero and would receive the dedication of the De Finibus. He relays the Corfidius correction in section 3.

• Ad Atticum 14.16 §2 a crown of gold through the Forum

  Cicero's hyperbole that Brutus is now so popular he could parade a triumphal gold crown openly, given the public approval following Dolabella's suppression of the Caesar-cult.

• Ad Atticum 15.3 §2 as though it were a speech delivered by Brutus

  M. Junius Brutus, the leading assassin of Caesar; Atticus had urged Cicero to compose an oration as if it were Brutus's own, but Cicero balks, since Brutus has already published his own version (the 'little speech' he made on the Capitol).

• Ad Atticum 15.4 §3 Am I to take up the case which he himself wrote

  Brutus had circulated his own version of a speech and now (through Atticus) wanted Cicero to recast it; Cicero refuses, calling unsolicited rewriting an insulting 'interference,' though he allows he might write a free 'Heraclidean' piece of his own.

• Ad Atticum 15.5 §1 The courier has come back from Brutus

  M. Junius Brutus, leader of the conspiracy, now in nervous semi-retirement; he and Cassius keep pressing Cicero for advice, Brutus wanting him to choose between two unspecified courses (probably whether to stay in Italy or go abroad).

• Ad Atticum 15.6 §1 our Brutus

  Marcus Junius Brutus, the leading assassin of Caesar; in mid-44 BC he and Cassius were still in Italy, technically praetors but increasingly hemmed in, and Cicero acts here as their go-between with the consular party.

• Ad Atticum 15.9 §1 Brutus see to the buying and shipping of grain to the city from Asia, Cassius from Sicily

  The Senate's proposal to give Brutus and Cassius grain-purchasing commissions in Asia and Sicily; dressed up as provinces, these were really a face-saving way to remove the assassins from Rome, which Cicero finds demeaning to them.

• Ad Atticum 15.9 §2 the letter of Brutus which you say you have read

  A letter from Brutus, evidently full of distressing news or counsel, which so upset Cicero that he says his grief left him slower to decide his own course.

• Ad Atticum 15.10 §1 the affectionate letter from Brutus

  A warm letter from Marcus Brutus, the chief assassin of Caesar; Cicero is torn over what advice to send him as Brutus weighs whether to accept a humiliating grain-commission or risk renewed action.

• Ad Atticum 15.18 §2 whose expensive games I suspect have largely fallen on you

  As urban praetor for 44 BC, Brutus was obliged to fund the costly Ludi Apollinares (held in his absence); Cicero guesses Atticus has been left to manage the expense.

• Ad Atticum 15.23 §1 I have sent a letter to Brutus

  Marcus Brutus, who in mid-44 BC was about to leave Italy for the East; Cicero, anxious about Brutus's plans, asks Atticus for any news of his journey as well.

• Ad Atticum 15.24 §1 The courier I had sent to Brutus

  Marcus Brutus, with whom Cicero was trying to coordinate before both men left Italy; the courier (tabellarius) carrying Cicero's letter missed Brutus, who had already departed.

• Ad Atticum 15.25 §1 Brutus, as you write, I expect I shall see

  Marcus Brutus, then preparing to leave Italy for the East; Cicero, on Atticus's information, anticipates an encounter with him, presumably en route or at a coastal stopping-point before sailing.

• Ad Atticum 15.26 §1 that I should attend his games

  Brutus, as urban praetor for 44 BC, was responsible for the Ludi Apollinares in July; though absent from Rome he was funding them lavishly, hoping a popular reception would strengthen the assassins' standing. Cicero declines to appear in person.

• Ad Atticum 15.28 §1 about which you must write to Brutus as well

  Marcus Junius Brutus, the chief assassin of Caesar and urban praetor for 44 BC; his Ludi Apollinares in July are the 'games' whose reception Cicero is anxiously tracking and wants reported to Brutus.

• Ad Atticum 15.29 §1 About the celebration of Brutus's games

  The Ludi Apollinares of July 44 BC, which Brutus as urban praetor was funding from afar; he and Cicero hoped a warm popular reception would bolster the assassins' political position.

• Ad Atticum 16.1 §1 to Brutus at Nesis

  M. Junius Brutus, the praetor and leading assassin of Caesar; in the summer of 44 BC he was lying low on the Campanian coast before leaving Italy, and Cicero visits him repeatedly to take counsel.

• Ad Atticum 16.4 §1 How grieved he was about the Nones of July!

  Marcus Brutus, the leading assassin of Caesar and praetor in 44 BC; his distress over "the Nones of July" concerns the games he was obliged to give in absentia and the political slights surrounding them as he prepared to leave Italy.

• Ad Atticum 16.5 §2 I took the young man with me to Brutus

  Marcus Brutus, the chief assassin of Caesar; his embracing and kissing of young Quintus served as a public vouching for the reformed nephew's good standing among the Liberators.

• Ad Atticum 16.7 §1 the edict of Brutus and Cassius

  Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius, the chief assassins of Caesar, had withdrawn from Rome and now issued a public edict; the report that the Senate would meet in full and that Antony might give way persuaded Cicero to turn back rather than flee abroad.

• Ad Atticum 16.7 §5 For our friend Brutus is silent

  Cicero quotes back a phrase of Atticus's: Brutus's silence meant he had not dared reproach an older man for planning to leave Italy; when they met at Velia, Brutus poured out the disapproval he had withheld.

• Ad Atticum 16.8 §2 O Brutus, where are you?

  M. Junius Brutus, the leading assassin of Caesar; Cicero laments that Brutus, now absent from Italy, is missing the political opening that Octavian's rise has created.

• Ad Atticum 16.9 §1 he can have Brutus too

  M. Junius Brutus, the chief assassin of Caesar; Cicero hopes that if Octavian's forces prove strong, Brutus and the republican cause might be drawn in alongside him.

• Ad Atticum 16.14 §1 tell against Brutus

  Marcus Junius Brutus, the leading assassin of Caesar and a praetor in 44 BC; further validation of Caesar's regime would be a political defeat for him and his cause.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.4 §1 Brutus's sortie

  Marcus Brutus commanded forces besieging or operating near Mutina in spring 43 BC; this "sortie" (eruptio) likely refers to a military operation by Decimus Brutus or a combined movement coinciding with the consuls' actions at the battle of Forum Gallorum (April 14) or Mutina (April 21).

• Ad M. Brutum 1.12 §2 your army

  Brutus commanded several legions in Macedonia and was the Senate's hope for a reserve force that could march into Italy if the western campaign against Antony and Lepidus faltered.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.13 §1 I have succeeded to them in their father's place

  Brutus's sister Iunia (not Tertia/Cassius's wife, but a different sister) was married to Lepidus; Brutus declares himself surrogate paterfamilias for Lepidus's children in order to strengthen his appeal to Cicero for clemency toward them.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.13 §2 1 July, from camp

  "Kal. Quintilibus ex castris" = Kalends of Quinctilis (1 July) 43 BC; Brutus was writing from his camp in Macedonia or Thrace, commanding the armies of the eastern republican cause.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.16 §2 the liberators of the whole world

  Brutus uses the term "liberatores" — which he and his fellow conspirators applied to themselves — to contrast the dignity of the Caesaricides with the humiliation of begging Octavian for the right to exist.

• Ad Familiares 3.4 §2 M. Brutus, your son-in-law

  The future tyrannicide Marcus Brutus had married another of Appius's daughters, Claudia, binding him to Appius as son-in-law.

• Ad Familiares 7.21 §1 the praetor Q. Caepio has given me possession

  The praetor 'Q. Caepio' is almost certainly M. Junius Brutus, who used the name Q. Servilius Caepio Brutus after adoption and was urban praetor in 44 BC; the wording quotes his edict granting bonorum possessio (praetorian possession of an estate).

• Ad Familiares 11.25 §2 him I do not cease summoning

  The Brutus here is Marcus Brutus the Liberator, then with his army in Macedonia and the East, whom Cicero kept urging by private letter to bring his forces to the "common war" in Italy.

• Ad Familiares 11.26 §1 whether or not to send for Brutus

  The Brutus to be "sent for" is Marcus Brutus the Liberator, then commanding in Macedonia and the East; bringing his army to Italy was repeatedly urged in this correspondence.

• Ad Familiares 12.1 §1 our Brutus

  M. Iunius Brutus, the other leading tyrannicide, consolidating his position in Macedonia and Greece; distinct from D. (Decimus) Brutus, named just after.

• Ad Familiares 13.10 §1 CICERO BRVTO S.

  The recipient is M. Iunius Brutus, later one of Caesar's assassins; at this date (46 BC) he was governing Cisalpine Gaul under Caesar's appointment, and M. Terentius was serving as his quaestor, which created the formal bond (necessitudo quaesturae) Cicero invokes.

• Ad Familiares 15.14 §6 your Brutus

  M. Iunius Brutus, the future tyrannicide, closely linked to Cassius (who would later marry Brutus's half-sister Junia Tertia); the two are already a pair in Cicero's mind years before the conspiracy of 44 BC.

• Ad Familiares 15.20 §3 where you have seen our Brutus

  Marcus Junius Brutus, the future tyrannicide; Trebonius's route in April 44 BC, on his way to his province of Asia, was expected to bring him into contact with Brutus.

• On the Ends of Good and Evil §1.1 Brutus

  Marcus Junius Brutus, the dedicatee of De Finibus and a serious student of philosophy himself. Cicero addresses the whole work to him, as he did the Brutus and other late treatises.

• On the Nature of the Gods §1.1 Brutus

  Marcus Junius Brutus, the addressee of the dialogue and several of Cicero's philosophical works. The future assassin of Caesar, here honored as a fellow student of philosophy.

• Orator: To Marcus Brutus §1 Brutus

  Marcus Junius Brutus, the future tyrannicide, here a younger friend and student of oratory to whom Cicero dedicates the work. The dialogue with him over Atticism is the occasion of the whole treatise.

• Tenth Philippic §1 Marcus Brutus

  Marcus Junius Brutus, leader of Caesar's assassins, who in 43 BC had seized control of Macedonia, Illyricum, and Greece. The Tenth Philippic urges the Senate to confirm his command; he is also styled Quintus Caepio Brutus from his adoption.

• Tenth Philippic §8 The body of the liberator was absent

  Brutus stayed away from his own Apollinarian games for safety; Cicero plays on his absence in body but presence in the people's memory of liberty.

• Tusculan Disputations §1.1 Brutus

  Marcus Iunius Brutus, the dedicatee of the Tusculans (and of several other works of 45-44 BC), to whom Cicero addresses the dialogue throughout. The famous tyrannicide and student of philosophy, here cast as the patron urging Cicero on to his philosophical writing.

• Tusculan Disputations §2.1 Brutus

  Marcus Junius Brutus, the dedicatee of the Tusculan Disputations and several other works of Cicero. Cicero addresses him directly throughout the dialogues.

• Tusculan Disputations §3.1 Brutus

  Marcus Junius Brutus, the dialogue's dedicatee and Cicero's younger contemporary, a philosophically serious statesman. The whole of the Tusculan Disputations is addressed to him.

• Tusculan Disputations §5.121 we shall send these second five books to our friend Brutus

  Cicero dedicates the whole of the Tusculan Disputations (the "second five books," following the five books of De Finibus) to Marcus Junius Brutus, who had urged and challenged him to write philosophy.