Et tu, Brute ? - Wikipedia Et tu, Brute ? `` You Too Brutus '' redirects here. For 2015 Malayalam language film, see You Too Brutus ( film ). Death of Caesar by Vincenzo Camuccini Et tu, Brute ? ( pronounced ( ɛt ˈtuː ˈbruːtɛ ) ) is a Latin phrase meaning `` even you, Brutus ? '' It is notable for its occurrence in William Shakespeare 's play Julius Caesar, where it is spoken by the Roman dictator Julius Caesar to his friend Marcus Junius Brutus at the moment of Caesar 's assassination. The first known occurrences of the phrase are said to be in two earlier Elizabethan plays ; Henry VI, Part 3 by Shakespeare, and an even earlier play, Caesar Interfectus, by Richard Eedes. The phrase is often used apart from the plays to signify an unexpected betrayal by a friend. Caesar utters these words in Act III, scene 1, as he is being stabbed to death, having recognized his friend and protégé Brutus as one of the assassins. There is however no evidence that the historic Caesar spoke these words. The name `` Brutus '', a second declension masculine noun, appears in the phrase in the vocative case, and so the - us ending of the nominative case is replaced by - e. Context On March 15 ( the Ides of March ), 44 BCE, the historic Caesar was attacked by a group of senators, including Brutus, who was Caesar 's friend and protégé. Caesar initially resisted his attackers, but when he saw Brutus, he reportedly responded as he died. The historical Caesar 's last words are not known with certainty. The Roman historian Suetonius, a century and a half after the incident, claims Caesar said nothing as he died, but that others reported that Caesar 's last words were the Greek phrase `` καὶ σὺ, τέκνον '', which means `` You too, child ? '' or `` You too, young man ? ''. Sometimes this is rendered in Latin as `` Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi '' ( `` You too, Brutus, my son '' ). Plutarch also reports that Caesar said nothing, but merely pulled his toga over his head when he saw Brutus among the conspirators. In Shakespeare 's play Julius Caesar ( 1599 ), when Caesar says Et tu, Brute ?, the phrase had already been in use ; Edmond Malone claimed that it appeared in a work that has since been lost -- Richard Eedes 's Latin play Caesar Interfectus of 1582. The phrase had also occurred in another play by Shakespeare, The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke, and the death of good King Henrie the Sixth, with the Whole Contention betweene the two Houses Lancaster and Yorke of 1595, which is the earliest printed version of Henry VI, Part 3. Interpretation It has been argued that the phrase can be interpreted as a curse or warning. One theory states that the historic Caesar adapted the words of a Greek sentence which to the Romans had long since become proverbial : The complete phrase is said to have been `` You too, my son, will have a taste of power, '' of which Caesar only needed to invoke the opening words to foreshadow Brutus ' own violent death, in response to his assassination. There is a poem by Horace, Satires ; Book I, Satire 7, written approximately 30 BCE, that mentions Brutus and his tyrannicide ; in discussing that poem, author John Henderson considers that the expression `` E-t t-u Br - u-t-e '', ( as he hyphenates it ), can be interpreted as a complaint containing a `` suggestion of mimetic compulsion ''. References ^ Jump up to : Henderson, John ( 1998 ). Fighting for Rome : Poets and Caesars, History, and Civil War. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0 - 521 - 58026 - 9. Jump up ^ Henle, Robert J., S.J. Henle Latin Year 1 Chicago : Loyola Press 1945 Jump up ^ Shakespeare, William ( 1960 ). S.F. Johnson ; Alfred Harbage, eds. Julius Caesar. Penguin Books. p. 74. Jump up ^ Gill, N.S., `` Latin -- Vocative endings '', About.com, retrieved 2012 - 09 - 16 Jump up ^... uno modo ad primum ictum gemitu sine voce edito ; etsi tradiderunt quidam Marco Bruto irruenti dixisse `` καὶ σύ, τέκνον ''. De Vita Caesarum, Liber I, Divus Iulius, LXXXII. Jump up ^ Suetonius, The Lives of Twelve Caesars, Life of Julius Caesar 82.2 Jump up ^ Billows, Richard A. ( 2009 ). Julius Caesar : The Colossus of Rome. London : Routledge. pp. 249 -- 250. ISBN 978 - 0 - 415 - 33314 - 6. Jump up ^ Plutarch, The Parallel Lives, Life of Caesar 66.9 Jump up ^ Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1, Line 77 Jump up ^ Dyce, Alexander ( 1866 ). The Works of William Shakespeare. London : Chapman and Hall. p. 648. Jump up ^ Garber, Marjorie. Shakespeare 's Ghost Writers : Literature as Uncanny Causality. Routledge, 2010. ISBN 9781135154899. p. 72 - 73 Jump up ^ Woodman, A.J. ( 2006 ). `` Tiberius and the Taste of Power : The Year 33 in Tacitus ''. Classical Quarterly. 56 ( 1 ) : 175 -- 189. doi : 10.1017 / S0009838806000140. Jump up ^ Woodman, A.J. The Annals of Tacitus : Books 5 -- 6 ; Volume 55 of Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries. Cambridge University Press, 2016. ISBN 9781316757314. William Shakespeare 's Julius Caesar Characters Julius Caesar Mark Antony Octavius Lepidus Flavius Marullus Cicero Calpurnia Portia Cinna Titinius Messala Young Cato Volumnius Conspirators Marcus Brutus Cassius Casca Decius Brutus Cinna Metellus Cimber Trebonius Caius Ligarius Sources Parallel Lives On screen 1950 1953 The Spread of the Eagle ( 1963 ; TV ) 1970 1979 ( TV ) 1994 ( TV ) Adaptations La morte di Cesare ( 1788 ) Shakespeare Writing `` Julius Caesar '' ( 1907 ) Caesar ( 1937 ) Die Ermordung Cäsars ( 1959 ) Dead Caesar ( 2007 ) The Karaoke King ( 2007 ) Roman Tragedies ( 2007 ) Quotes `` The dogs of war '' `` Et tu, Brute ? '' `` Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears '' `` Greek to me '' Music Julius Caesar ( overture, 1851 ) Related Cultural depictions of Julius Caesar Assassination of Julius Caesar Caesar 's Comet Ides of March Battle of Philippi Me and Orson Welles ( 2008 ) Caesar Must Die ( 2012 ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Et_tu,_Brute%3F&oldid=844485765 '' Categories : Julius Caesar Julius Caesar ( play ) Latin quotations Shakespearean phrases Hidden categories : Articles containing Ancient Greek - language text Talk About Wikipedia Български Brezhoneg Català Cymraeg Dansk Eesti Español فارسی Français Հայերեն Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית ქართული Latina Македонски Nederlands 日本 語 Português Română Русский Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська 中文 20 more Edit links This page was last edited on 5 June 2018, at 07 : 07 ( UTC ). About Wikipedia

Question: what is the meaning of et tu brute
Answer: "even you, Brutus?"