Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus

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Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus (died 43 BC) was a Roman politician and general of the 1st century BC and one of Julius Caesar's assassins.

1 Life
2 References

[edit] Life

[edit] Early life

Decimus Brutus was a distant cousin of Julius Caesar, though he is also believed to have possibly been his son. He spent his youth mainly with, among others, Publius Clodius and Mark Antony.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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), Decimus Brutus joined the conspiracy against him after being convinced by Marcus Brutus, however Caesar continued to trust in Decimus Brutus and even mentioned him his will.

In 44 BC, he was made 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, Calpurnia, Decimus Brutus persuaded him to go, dismissing Calpurnia's concerns. When Caesar arrived in Pompey's theatre for the senate meeting, 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.

[edit] 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 the legionaries of Caesar's legions 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 hurried to his province 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 was for Antony a way 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.

However, the consuls of the year, Aulus Hirtius and Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus, marched northward to raise the siege. Guided by Cicero, the Senate was inclinced to view Mark Antony as an enemy. Octavian, the nineteen-year-old heir of Caesar, and already raised to the rank of propraetor, accompanied Pansa north. The first confrontation occurred on April 14 at the battle of Forum Gallorum, where Antony hoped to deal with his opponents piece-meal. 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 he had 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 deterioating by the day, Decimus Brutus fled, attempting to reach Macedonia, where Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus had stationed themselves. He left Italy, abandoning his legions, but was executed en route by a Gallic chief loyal to Mark Antony, becoming the first of Caesar's assassins to be killed.

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

[edit] References

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

Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
Alcibiades and Coriolanus - Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar - Aratus & Artaxerxes and Galba & Otho - Aristides and Cato the Elder
Crassus and Nicias - Demetrius and Antony - Demosthenes and Cicero - Dion and Brutus - Fabius and Pericles - Lucullus and Cimon
Lysander and Sulla - Numa and Lycurgus - Pelopidas and Marcellus - Philopoemen and Flamininus - Phocion and Cato the Younger - Pompey and Agesilaus
Poplicola and Solon - Pyrrhus and Gaius Marius - Romulus and Theseus - Sertorius and Eumenes
Tiberius Gracchus & Gaius Gracchus and Agis & Cleomenes - Timoleon and Aemilius Paullus - Themistocles and Camillus