Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus

For others with this cognomen, see Albinus (cognomen).

Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus (born ca. 85–81 BC,^[1] died 43 BC) was a Roman politician and general of the 1st century BC and one of the leading instigators of Julius Caesar's assassination. Decimus Brutus is not to be confused with the more famous Brutus among the conspirators, Marcus Brutus.

Life

Early life

Decimus Brutus was a distant cousin of Julius Caesar, and on several occasions Caesar expressed how he loved Brutus like a son. Ronald Syme argued that Decimus may have been the natural son of Julius Caesar, not the more famous Marcus Brutus (another distant cousin).^[2]

Decimus Brutus spent his youth mainly in the company of Publius Clodius, Gaius Curio and Mark Antony.^{[citation needed]} His mother was Sempronia Tuditani, wife of Decimus Junius Brutus who was consul in 77 BC. He was adopted by Aulus Postumius Albinus, but kept his own family name, only adding his adoptive father's cognomen Albinus.

During the Wars

He was a legate in Caesar's army during the Gallic wars and was given the command of the fleet in the war against the Veneti. In a decisive sea battle Decimus Brutus succeeded in destroying the Veneti fleet. Using sickle-like hooks fitted on long poles, Decimus Brutus attacked the enemy's sails, leaving them immobilized and easy prey to Roman boarding parties.

When the Republican Civil War broke out, Decimus Brutus sided with his commander, Caesar, and was entrusted once again with fleet operations.

The Greek city of Massilia (present-day Marseille) sided with Pompey the Great, and Caesar, in a hurry to reach Spain and cut Pompey off from his legions, left Decimus Brutus in charge of the naval blockade of Massilia. Within thirty days, Decimus Brutus built a fleet from scratch and secured the capitulation of Massilia.

Ides of March

When Caesar returned to Rome as dictator after the final defeat of the Republican faction in the Battle of Munda (45 BC), Marcus Brutus joined the conspiracy against Caesar, after being convinced by Cassius and Decimus Brutus. In 44 BC, he was made (Decimus) praetor peregrinus by personal appointment of Caesar and was destined to be the governor of Cisalpine Gaul in the following year.

On the Ides of March (March 15), when Caesar decided not to attend the Senate meeting due to the concerns of his wife, he was persuaded to attend by Decimus Brutus, who escorted him to the senate house, and neatly evaded Mark Antony, who wished to tell Caesar of the assassination. After Caesar was attacked by the first assassin, Decimus and the rest of the conspirators attacked and assassinated him. According to Nicolaus of Damascus, Decimus Brutus was the third to strike Caesar, stabbing him in the side.

Consequences and Death

The assassins received an amnesty the next day, issued by the senate at the instigation of Mark Antony, Caesar's fellow consul. But the situation was not peaceful, Rome's population and Caesar's legionaries wanted to see the conspirators punished. The group decided to lie low and Decimus used his office of Praetor Peregrinus to stay away from Rome. The climate of reconciliation soon passed and slowly the conspirators were starting to feel the strain of the assassination. Thus, at the beginning of 43 BC, Decimus Brutus hurried to Gallia Cisalpina, the province assigned to him as pro-praetor, and started to levy his own troops. He was ordered by the Senate to surrender his province to Antony but refused. This was the act of provocation to which Antony was only too happy to respond. With his own political situation on the verge of disaster and himself declared public enemy, defeating Decimus Brutus was a way for Antony to regain his ascendancy and get control of the strategically important Italian Gaul.

In 43 BC Decimus Brutus occupied Mutina, laying in provisions for a protracted siege. Antony obliged him, and blockaded Decimus Brutus' forces, intent on starving them out.

Nevertheless, the consuls of the year, Aulus Hirtius and Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus, marched northward to raise the siege. Guided by Cicero, the Senate was inclined to view Mark Antony as an enemy. Octavian, the nineteen-year-old heir of Caesar, and already raised to the rank of Propraetor, accompanied Gaius Pansa north. The first confrontation occurred on April 14 at the battle of Forum Gallorum, where Antony hoped to deal with his opponents piecemeal. Antony defeated the forces of Gaius Pansa and Octavian, which resulted in Pansa suffering mortal wounds; however, Antony was then defeated by a surprise attack from Hirtius. A second battle on 21 April at Mutina resulted in a further defeat for Antony and Hirtius' death. Antony withdrew, unwilling to become the subject of a double circumvallation as Caesar had done to Vercingetorix at Alesia.

With the siege raised, Decimus Brutus cautiously thanked Octavian, now commander of the legions that had rescued him, from the other side of the river. Octavian coldly indicated he had come to oppose Antony, not aid Caesar's murderers. Decimus Brutus was given the command to wage war against Antony, but many of his soldiers deserted to Octavian. His position deteriorating by the day, Decimus Brutus fled Italy, abandoning his legions. He attempted to reach Macedonia, where Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus had stationed themselves but was executed en route by a Gallic chief loyal to Mark Antony, becoming the first of Caesar's assassins to be killed.

Several letters written by Decimus Brutus during the last two years of his life are preserved among Cicero's collected correspondence.

In literature

In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Decimus Brutus is mistakenly called "Decius".

In Allan Massie's 1993 book entitled Caesar, Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus narrates his story and reason for joining in Caesar's assassination while being held captive by the Gallic chief.

Decimus Brutus is an important character in Caesar and The October Horse by Colleen McCullough. In these novels, he and Gaius Trebonius are portrayed as the real leaders of the assassination conspiracy.

In Conn Iggulden's Emperor Series the historical figures of Decimus Brutus and Marcus Brutus are blended together into the one character named Marcus Brutus.

In Ben Kane's books The Forgotten Legion, The Silver Eagle and Road To Rome, Decimus Brutus is shown as a fairly major character to the plot.

Bibliography

• Collected works of Caesar in Latin, Italian and English
• Warfare in the Classical World by John Warry.

References

1. ^ Ronald Syme, "Bastards in the Roman Aristocracy," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 104 (1960), p. 327, argues for a birth date of 81 on the basis of Decimus's quaestorship, the most probable year of which is 50 BC: since quaestor was the first step on the Roman career track, and the age requirement in this period was 30, a man of Decimus' standing and connections is not likely to have waited past the age of eligibility to launch his political career.
2. ^ Ronald Syme, "Bastards in the Roman Aristocracy," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 104 (1960) 323–327. Thomas Africa thought Syme had recanted this view; see "The Mask of an Assassin: A Psychohistorical Study of M. Junius Brutus," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 8 (1978), p. 615, note 28, referring to Syme's book Sallust (Berkeley, 1964), p. 134. This would appear to be a misreading, given Syme's fuller argument twenty years later in "No Son for Caesar?" Historia 29 (1980) 422–437, pp. 426–430 on Decimus.