BRUTUS

Form: Marcus Junius.

The well-known friend of Cicero, and murderer of Caesar. He was bom in 85 B.C., and died by his own band after the battle of Philippi, B.C. 42. As an orator and a writer on philosophy he held a prominent position among his contemporaries. Two books of correspondence between Brutus and Cicero have come down to us, the authenticity of which is disputed. There is also a collection of seventy letters in Greek, purporting to represent correspondence between Brutus and the Greek cities of Asia Minor ; but this is no more than the patchwork of a rhetorician.