page_title: Lucius Junius Brutus
section_title: Overthrow of the monarchy
hierarchical_section_title: Lucius Junius Brutus / Overthrow of the monarchy
caption_attribution_description: Roman artwork of the Republican Era, 4th-3rd centuries BC. The bust is a modern addition.
context_page_description: Lucius Junius Brutus is the semi-legendary founder of the Roman Republic, and traditionally one of its first consuls in 509 BC. He was reputedly responsible for the expulsion of his uncle the Roman king Tarquinius Superbus after the suicide of Lucretia, which led to the overthrow of the Roman monarchy. He was involved in the abdication of fellow consul Tarquinius Collatinus, and executed two of his sons for plotting the restoration of the Tarquins.
  He was claimed as an ancestor of the Roman gens Junia, including Decimus Junius Brutus and Marcus Junius Brutus, the most famous of Julius Caesar's assassins. Traditions about his life may have been fictional, and some scholars argue that it was the Etruscan king Porsenna who overthrew Tarquinius. The plebeian status of the Junia gens has also raised doubts about his position as a consul and the alleged initial patrician domination of the office. Depicted as the nephew of Tarquinius, he may have symbolized the internal tensions that occurred during the transition between the monarchy and the republic.
context_section_description: Brutus was the son of Tarquinia, daughter of Rome's fifth king Lucius Tarquinius Priscus and sister to Rome's seventh king Tarquinius Superbus.
  According to Livy, Brutus had a number of grievances against his uncle the king. Amongst them was the fact that Tarquinius had put to death a number of the chief men of Rome, including Brutus' brother.  Brutus avoided the distrust of Tarquinius's family by feigning that he was slow-witted (in Latin brutus translates to dullard).
  He accompanied Tarquinius's sons on a trip to the Oracle of Delphi. The sons asked the oracle which of them was going to be Rome's next king. The Oracle of Delphi responded that the first among them to kiss their mother "shall hold supreme sway in Rome." Brutus interpreted "mother" to mean Gaia, so he pretended to trip and kissed the ground.
  Brutus, along with Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus, Publius Valerius Publicola, and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus were summoned by Lucretia to Collatia after she had been raped by Sextus Tarquinius, the son of the king Tarquinius Superbus.  Lucretia, believing that the rape dishonoured her and her family, committed suicide by stabbing herself with a dagger after telling of what had befallen her.  According to legend, Brutus grabbed the dagger from Lucretia's breast after her death and immediately shouted for the overthrow of the Tarquins.
  The four men gathered the youth of Collatia, then went to Rome where Brutus, being at that time Tribunus Celerum, summoned the people to the forum and exhorted them to rise up against the king.  The people voted for the deposition of the king, and the banishment of the royal family.
  Brutus, leaving Lucretius in command of the city, proceeded with armed men to the Roman army then camped at Ardea.  The king, who had been with the army, heard of developments at Rome, and left the camp for the city before Brutus' arrival.  The army received Brutus as a hero, and the king's sons were expelled from the camp.  Tarquinius Superbus, meanwhile, was refused entry at Rome, and fled with his family into exile.
  In the aftermath following the overthrow Brutus is credited by later historians such as Tacitus as "establishing liberty and the consulate", a statement that is now believed to be false by modern historians.
caption: The Capitoline Brutus (now in the Capitoline Museums) is a bronze bust dated 4th to early 3rd centuries BC. It was initially thought to be a bust of Lucius Brutus (hence its name), but modern scholars have rejected this attribution.
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