Bust of Marcus Giunio Brutus (Michelangelo)
Who really was Marco Giunio Bruto , the man who went down in history above all for being among the conspirators who killed Giulio Cesare ?In truth, it does not seem that the young man had ever shown excellent talents in any field, nor have they ever been able to understand the reasons for the boundless hatred of Caesar , Who, on the contrary, loved him very much.
The political career Brutus began when he decided to follow Cato , who had been exiled to the island of Cyprus ; in this pleasant location Brutus got rich and found a wife, becoming the husband of Porcia , daughter of her godfather.
Back in Rome, he sided with the “optimates ”Against the triunvirate consisting of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus .
If it is true that Brutus had excellent reasons to justify the hatred he harbored towards Pompeo, that long ago he had his father murdered on the orders of the perfidious Silla it is not clear why he hated Caesar even more; he was perhaps jealous of the relationship that his mother Servilia had you been entertaining for some time with the great general?
It can be.
Some scholars have ventured the hypothesis that Brutus was actually the natural son of Caesar, thesis that, for obvious reasons, can neither be excluded nor ascertained, however it is certain that the Roman general always showed a deep and sincere affection towards Brutus who, natural or not, he always considered as a son.
After the famous passage of the Rubicon , Brutus even came to side with Pompeo, who however definitively lost the civil war in the battle of Farsàlo , a circumstance that forced Brutus to send a (painful) letter to the winner in which he apologized.
Caesar, showing himself truly magnanimous and helpful, not only forgave him, but welcomed Brutus into his close circle of intimates, appointed him governor of Gaul and then also praetor.
But even this was not enough to appease the young man's inexplicable resentment, indeed, hatred and hatred mounted even more quickly and disruptive than ever, so much so as to push Brutus to join the killers than to the Ides of March in 44 BC. took the dictator's life.
Except that Brutus will not long survive his illustrious victim:he took his own life in Philippi , after the bitter defeat obtained against the troops of Octavian and Antonio. (Photo gives:Notizie.it).